Who are you trying to help? What issue are you trying to address?

The socio-economic development needs of our world are complex and varied. Disadvantaged communities desperately require skills development and capacity building interventions that provide self-sustainability in their homes, finances and life in general. Many people do not have the necessary education or skills to access formal education opportunities and so it is our belief that entrepreneurship is a crucial part of the solution to economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation as it empowers people to start their own income-generating small business, transforming their own life as well as the community in which they live.

What is your project and how will it help?

EPIC Solutions provides business training and post business start-up coaching & support to people who are poor or who have been marginalized through the circumstances of their lives. We are using a Business training course developed by the South African Institute of Entrepreneurship (SAIE) which is instructor led, interactive and experimentally based. It simulates real market conditions and business scenarios in the training room. As part of the training, trainees receive a small loan and spend two to three weeks starting and running a real business. This style of learning shows cause and effect of decisions in real time because of the interactive nature of the training. The program does not teach vocational skills per se, but shows people how to take a skill they already have and turn it into a profitable business. In addition, life skills such as determination, communication, negotiation, humility and team work are developed creating a seed of hope.

Patrick, a homeless man who was living under a bridge started a business selling bath soap. Another, Frans, started his business selling tea at the taxi-rank in mid-winter. Nolukho rented a container and opened her own hair straightening salon within 2 weeks of the training and Vincent is in the process of starting a recycling business that should employ 3-4 people. Vincent is also now leading our program in Mfuleni township, Cape Town. Other groups we have trained include people living with HIV/AIDS, prostitutes in rehabilitation, parolees, immigrants as well as training people from other cultures and languages.

Our program began in 2006 and since starting we have trained over 600 entrepreneurs in 13 countries (6 in Africa, 3 in the Balkans, 2 in Central Asia, India & Nepal), including 8 cities/towns around South Africa. We seek to train a trainer in each place we deploy so that an on-going impact can take place in that community. As we have seen the success of this program and its ability to produce quick results – others have seen this too – leading to a step change in the number of deployment invitations received which has required the development of a global roll out plan.

If we want to see an end to poverty we need to see economic transformation take place which comes from locally run, locally owned businesses. We must stop telling people that they can’t do it and rather that they are the solution and – through a program like ours – teach them how.

How can other people partner with you on your project?

People can partner with this project by providing funding for the workshops.

Our vision is to replicate and deploy this program on a larger scale within South Africa, expanding into Africa and Globally. We have established an Non-Profit Organization called “EPIC Solutions” (087-791-NPO) to oversee and manage our expansion and have many partnerships globally through which we will deploy. By the end of 2012 our goal for South Africa is to deploy into new locations in Cape Town, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth and to expand the work we began last year in Durban and this year in Johannesburg. In other African & International nations we have partners meeting our readiness criteria in Madagascar, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, North Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia with whom we have scheduled deployment in 2012 and into 2013.

Please detail the resources that you need.

Our expected budget for this roll out and to sustain the places where we have already deployed is GBP 90,000 and we expect to start more than 650 new businesses with this funding.

We have broken our deployment plans and associated budgets into “geographical projects” so as to appeal to the objectives of different funders:

Project International (Central Asia, South East Asia, North Africa)
- GBP 25,000

Project Africa (Sub-Saharan focus)
- GBP 20,000

Project South Africa (African Townships, paroles, anti-trafficking)
- GBP 46,000