Hi guys
Have you ever been to Africa? And Ethiopia? What comes to your mind when you think of it? Desert? Water shortage? Starving children?
Hmm, not very motivating… What if I told you that there are universities with highly motivated young people who want to actively develop themselves and their country?
Have you ever been to Africa? And Ethiopia? What comes to your mind when you think of it? Desert? Water shortage? Starving children?
Hmm, not very motivating… What if I told you that there are universities with highly motivated young people who want to actively develop themselves and their country?
Now you
think: “Okay, that all sounds cool but what has it to do with YEEP? And anyway,
what the hell is YEEP?” That’s why I will start introducing you to the Young
Entrepreneur Exchange Project (YEEP).
YEEP was launched in August 2013 in Hawassa (for all of you who slept during
geography classes – it’s in Ethiopia, East Africa) through the initiative and mediation
of Stephan Brun, president of the Business Machine (www.business-machine.org).
It’s a joint initiative between the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH)
in Switzerland and the Hawassa University (HU) in Ethiopia in the area of entrepreneurship.
The aim of this project is to encourage Ethiopian students to become entrepreneurs
and to support them in establishing their own companies. The ultimate goal of
YEEP is to actively engage in generating new companies and hence new jobs which
in turn support economic development in Ethiopia.
YEEP has
three phases during which Swiss and Ethiopian students develop, in teams, a
business idea using knowledge and competencies from both sides. In phase one
the Ethiopian students post their business ideas on our platform (www.yeeproject.org
– don’t hesitate to visit our fabulous website) where both Swiss and Ethiopian
students can give feedback. In a first selection round, 20 to 25 business ideas
are chosen to be improved on in phase two. At the end of the second phase, and
the second round of selection, up to 7 business ideas – which implies seven
teams – are selected and promoted to phase three during which they also take
part in the start-up week in Hawassa in August. This start-up week represents
the end of phase three and simultaneously the highlight of the first “YEEP
year”. During the start-up week each team finalizes its business plan on which
it was working on together, via the internet, the months before. At the end of
the week the winning teams are announced following the submission of their
business plan and final ‘pitch’ presentation. The prize is a start-up package. This
will allow the teams to found their own company. Phuu, you survived the more
theoretical part of my blog entry which you may have found a bit boring.
Congratulations!
Where are
we now? My humble self is sitting in front of my laptop – still in Switzerland
and waiting impatiently to leave for Ethiopia. And where you are at the moment
– I have no idea. ;). Just kidding. We’re now in the middle of phase three
where the seven mixed teams are still working, as I said before via the
internet, on their business plans. On 20th August we fly to Addis
Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia. From there we’ll take a minibus (not as
comfortable as it sounds… but this will be part of one of my next posts) and
head down to Hawassa. On Monday, 25th August, the official part of
the start-up week begins.
I have created
this blog in order to keep you guys up to date and interested in how this
project is developing. Before and during the start-up week I’ll write about the
business ideas, the teams and what’s going on in general. I’m sure there will
be many curious and funny stories and I’m really looking forward to sharing
them with you.
Salam
(which means goodbye in Amharic – the official language of Ethiopia. See,
you’ve already learned something :P)
Love, Ari
La star de semaine de yeep est démarré à hawassa éthiopie,Et j'ai ma très heureux de travailler avec swis les membres de l'équipe de plan d'affaires.
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