In the first week of May, our Moonshot Pirates team went on an exciting journey to Africa in order to organize the first Bootcamp on the oldest continent. The 3-day event organized in collaboration with SOS Children’s Villages took place in one of the SOS locations, in Tema, Ghana.
Welcome to Ghana
Ghana is a country situated on the coast of the Guinean Golf and is known for having one of the highest GDP per capita in Western Africa. In year 2011, Ghana was named the fastest growing economy in the world. Ghana is a multilingual country and one of the common spoken languages is English which was inherited from colonial era. That was one of the reasons why we have decided this is the perfect opportunity to bring our Bootcamp to the local young people and aspiring young entrepreneurs.
Opportunity to Step Out of the Comfort Zone
The 3-day Bootcamp was organized for young people from SOS Children’s Villages and SOS support programs between ages 14 and 21. We had total of 40 participants from several SOS locations such as Tema, Accra, Asiakwa, Kumasi, and Tamale. Young talents created 8 teams and worked on their ideas in order to solve grand global challenges. Waste management was a popular topic among the participants and several teams worked on a project solving the burning question of waste processing. 12 mentors from Ghana and 3 international mentors were helping our young participants to overcome the obstacles on their way to shaping the ideas. Workshops on topic of entrepreneurship and public speaking took place throughout the event. Our young pirates were brave enough to step out of their comfort zone while speaking on the stage in front of the audience for the very first time.
The Winning Team
The winning team, called Loop, worked on a waste management project. The idea behind the Loop was a vending machine to which local people can bring the plastic bottles for recycling. In return, the person bringing the plastic bottle will receive data or mobile credit. Using mobile money for payments belongs to one of the most popular payment methods in the country. The project was created in order to mitigate the waste created by plastic products and to incentivize the people that take care of their environment. The team behind the Loop project won a public speaking coaching and a retreat with Ibrahim Mustapha, a popular public speaking coach from Ghana.
To read more about this exciting experience check out the newspaper article from one of the Ghanian newspapers here.
Interested in Participating?
Great news! Our next Bootcamp will be happening in Vienna from 25th to 28th June! Apply here to get your spot. The seats are limited! Not in town but passionate about entrepreneurship? Then join our global #beapirate Challenge that will kick off on June 1st and have the opportunity to win a trip to Silicon Valley. Hurry up and sign-up for this exciting journey here. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
