CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2020 AWIEF AWARD WINNERS
CREATIVE INDUSTRY AWARD WINNER 2020
Ayanfeoluwa Olarinde, Lulu Arts and UnEarthical – Nigeria
Olarinde Olayemi Ayanfeoluwa is an expressive visual artist and photographer. She hails from Ikirun, Osun State Nigeria. She studied Microbiology at the University of Lagos. Olarinde continues to evolve creatively with her artistic dynamism connecting viewers in more perspectives than one. Her skillset includes but not limited to scribbles, doodles, sculpting, paintings, digital art and others.
Ayanfe goes with the idea that we all are beautiful imperfections despite our flaws, thus creating harmony from disharmony. She gathers colossal inspiration from self-Image and Identity, streams of consciousness and her passage through life. Lately, she has developed some interest in folklore and gender construct.
YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR AWARD WINNER 2020
Hannah Lavery, Hannah Lavery - South Africa
Hannah is the owner of a Cape Town based women’s apparel brand. A clothing brand for busy women, providing simple clothing solutions for complicated lives.
Inspired by the diversity of womens’ shapes and lives, the brand offers a complete wardrobe in neutral tones with clear lines and kind-to-your-skin materials. Cross-seasonal and organically updated, the range is for those who want to dress with ease and have wardrobes with longevity. The brand believes that there are no bad bodies, just bad fits. With this notion, the brand produces fit-for-you dresses with the finest material for her customers. Hannah’s ultimate aim is to create an experience for her customers that is personal, comfortable and one that builds a lasting relationship.
TECH ENTREPRENEUR AWARD WINNER 2020
Marlize Holtzhausen, 911 Response24 - South Africa
Marlize is the founder of Response24, an advanced cloud-based solution – a single-page incident management platform. Response24 brings a highly fragmented response environment into a well-connected, birds-eye view of a live response environment that enables first responders to accurately respond fast.
The result of this innovation shaves critical minutes off of emergency response times and gives users the best possible chance for a positive outcome. Changing a mobile phone into a live mobile panic button was only the first step to creating a rapid response to an incident. Visibility, incident management and the ability to truly measure service delivery became a critical part to ensure real help real fast, and she built a single-view incident management platform that today owns the full value chain of an incident, end-to-end.
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR AWARD WINNER 2020
Rita Stryker, Willette Safehouse - Liberia
Rita id the co-founder of Williette Safehouse. As co-founder and CEO of Williette Safehouse, Rita led the organization towards the inauguration of new youth, disabled inclusive policy protections, constructed holistic youth-centered activities/awareness-raising programs, successfully advancing student participation and donor support, and established innovative projects/programs incorporating industry-relevant skills.
Rita secured strategic partnerships and collaborations for accelerated impact with international, governmental, and local entities for participatory development of sustainable inclusive education and support for marginalized PWDs in post-conflict Liberia.
She also led aggressive expansion of donor support to $1 million within four years while serving over 500 youth nationwide, providing safe, protective learning environments to develop inclusion-oriented human resources.
ENERGY AWARD WINNER 2020
Amma Serwah Boateng, Destra Energy Group - Ghana
Amma is a 31 year old petroleum engineer, project management professional and social entrepreneur. She is the managing director of Destra Energy Group, a thriving iol and gas services company in Ghana, West Africa.
Amma holds a unique triple master’s degree (MSPME) from Heriot Watt University (UK), Politechnico di Milano (Italy) and Umea University (Sweden). She completed her first first degree in KNUST (Ghana) where she earned a BSc. (Hons) in Petrolium Engineering.
Amma is also the co-founder of FreelunchGH, an NGO that encourages underprivileged children to participate in scheduled reading session in order to enjoy complementary nutritious meals served during this season.
AGRI ENTREPRENEUR AWARD WINNER 2020
Victoria Mwafulirwa, Homes Industries - Malawi
Victoria Mwafulirwa founded Homes after a successful career in Journalism which exposed her to Paladin Africa where she served as External Communications Officer.
She later switched professions to Purchasing and Supplies and holds a Graduate Diploma in Purchasing and Supply with CIPS. Her motivation at HOMES derives from her passion in empowering women and girls through Agri -entrepreneurship. Homes aims at economically emancipating the target group while educating and exposing them to modern nutritional trends and innovations.
Besides running HOMES Victoria also serves in other capacities in society:
• Board Secretary of Women Investment Corporative
• Board Member for Farmers Union of Malawi
•Also Served as Regional Chairperson of the African Network for Environmental Journalists under the auspices of UNEP as well as Regional editor for Earth Wire Africa and online news portal that focusses on Environmental and current Affairs in the Continent.
EMPOWERMENT AWARD WINNER 2020
Porcho Marguerite Sogoba, MUSODEV - Mali
Porcho Marguerite Sogoba is the founder of MUSODEV and a computer scientist by training.
Being in the digital field, she noticed very quickly that women are less represented despite the multiple opportunities that are found there. Thus Musodev, a non-profit organization whose main objective is the empowerment of women and girls in the digital world was born.
Under Porcho’s leadership, from its creation in 2018 to today, more than 100 women and girls have benefited from Musodev’s support and more than 2,000 have been reached online.
Also since March 2020, the organization has been running a training academy offering a 9-month training program in computer coding and digital marketing.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER 2020
Daisy Mmabatho Molefhi, ABM University College - Botswana
Daisy Molefhi’s career spans over three decades in entrepreneurship, leadership development and education. She holds qualifications in Agricultural Education, Business Administration, including an MSc in Strategic Management.
She founded ABM University College in 1989, pioneering in private higher education where she is currently Vice-Chancellor. She has trained and mentored entrepreneurs across levels- grassroots to corporate.
She served as Vice-President of the Botswana Chamber of Commerce, the first of two women to receive the prestigious “Voice of Business” award by the same organisation. She has contributed significantly to education policies and is founding President- Botswana Association of Private Tertiary Education Providers.