According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes is a leading cause of disability, morbidity, and mortality worldwide. In Mexico, diabetes is the second leading cause of death and has an estimated prevalence of 15.2% (12.8 million adults). This 5th & 6th grade team from Instituto Alfa aimed to create a chocolate product made with natural ingredients, free from added preservatives and sugars.
Xocoatl is created through a fairly simple process. First, the students begin by roasting the cocoa and almonds. Next, they grind and mix the roasted ingredients, let things settle, and then the product is neatly packaged in Xocoatl branded sackcloth for your enjoyment!
And just like their tagline proclaims, “Endulza tu dia sin azucar”… “Sweeten your day without sugar”!
Kidvation Global partnered with the School of Scholars in Pakistan to implement the Entrepreneurship Pathway with a select group of middle school students. The School of Scholars is an all girls school in a province of Pakistan where over 90% of females are illiterate. School founder and director Sumera Mehboob decided to change that with her innovative approach to education.
The “Young CEO’s” as Sumera calls her students created an array of products through Kidvation’s curriculum– including fashion items, food, toys, and even home decor. Amazingly, this work didn’t stay inside the walls of their school. The girls held a sales event for their village and 700 people from the community attended. Everything the girls had to sell was purchased, and some of them even paid for their tuition with their earnings.
According to Sumera, “We’ve designed a new plan where every Friday they visit other schools in Khuzdar—not only to showcase and sell their projects, but to inspire other young minds with the message that they too can be CEOs of their own businesses. Their success has brought joy to their families, and we’re seeing increasing interest from students in other schools, as well as new students in our town.”
Kidvation Global partnered with the Tanda Bilingual Academy in Ivory Coast to implement the Entrepreneurship Pathway with middle school students. Tanda is a rural town and many of the students attend from impoverished homes with little opportunity for upward mobility. The Bilingual Academy aims to change that, and Kidvation became the perfect partner to jumpstart that change.
According to the program director Michael Wheeler, “This class challenged the team members in an entirely different way than they are used to. It took some time to ‘unlock’ the creativity of the students, but once we did, they took off running. I think this is a wonderful program Kidvation has built, and that it can truly leave a mark on kids’ lives. This is a start to bringing a new thinking and mindset that can truly help bring change to these impoverished communities.
The top selling student-products include Pure Africa, a natural moisturizing cream that uses ingredients only grown in west Africa, making it a unique offering should it be sold in the U.S. or Europe. And Bee Sap, a clever change to a popular local drink known as Bissap. Students made the drink healthier by replacing cane sugar with local organic honey and hibiscus flowers–and with a fun play on words that speak to the ingredients by changing the name from “Bissap” to “Bee Sap.”
School & Location:
Last summer we had the opportunity to co-facilitate a 4-day faith-based entrepreneurship camp at the Open Connect Conference that took place in Chiang Mai Thailand. The camp was held for 60 expat teenagers that live abroad with their families that run businesses in various countries. We had the chance to work with a wonderful group of students that reside in places such as Nepal, Spain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Indonesia just to name a few places.
During the camp experience, students learned about the various aspects of entrepreneurship from ideation to creation. They learned about product/service development, budgeting, marketing, and how to create & deliver a pitch presentation. Students were challenged during the week to develop a business concept that could not only be profitable, but that had a faith-based & Kingdom entrepreneurship component to the business!
We had 20+ student teams that did an amazing job in less than a week’s time. The top 3 scoring teams from the pitch competition were awarded a stipend. The overall week was a huge success and students reported that they felt the camp was productive, helped them acquire & utilize new skills, and they learned things that can help them make a positive impact in society.
