Impact Stories: Participation & Collaboration
The Power of Gathering – Seeds 4 Youth
How do community kitchens, networking events, sharing stories around the fireside, preparing food and eating together, travelling to new places, creating art and being in nature promote entrepreneurial enterprise development?
Coming together as 4 different organisations spread across the world using different methods for similar societal issues has been incredibly useful in causing us each to look more deeply into the work that we do.
Having visitors looking in on you and your work and asking questions, sheds a new light on things you may have previously overlooked or never even considered as noteworthy. Likewise, observing these organisations at work in their contexts, enables us to understand our own context more clearly.
The focus of this project on strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit of young migrants for the development of inclusive and sustainable enterprises, had us all asking a lot of questions of each other around what we have found to be most effective in this arena.
Firstly we had to define some vocabulary, as it became quite clear early on that there were some discrepancies between how the European and South African participants understood certain terms, like youth, sustainable, entrepreneurial, migrant etc and so the starting point was to clarify these meanings between us. This process in itself gave us much more understanding of each other’s realities.
What has remained a discussion throughout the project is the difference between promoting entrepreneurial enterprises, and strengthening entrepreneurial spirit. I will speak here about Amava Oluntu’s personal journey with this over the years and why we have settled on the latter as our main focus.
In a country with one of the greatest wealth divides in the world and corresponding unemployment rates, there is much emphasis placed on entrepreneurship as a way out of this predicament. Indeed we have very high rates of entrepreneurship, and it accounts for a large part of our economy and employment numbers. There is also a high failure rate of entrepreneurial enterprises, which means we have a continual cycle of building up and falling apart in the entrepreneurial landscape, which correlates with our resilience and quick responsiveness to immediate needs, with less attention on long term solutions and fixes.
Our education system reflects the same lines as our wealth divide, with some of the finest education in the private schooling system; and our public schooling system offering the spectrum of excellent to extremely poor, correlating directly to the economic and sociopolitical geographies of the schools themselves. So, based purely on the family you were born into, your future trajectory is forever affected by the education system that your family can afford.
While the youths we work with have mostly been through the poorest end of the education system and live in incredibly challenging and under-resourced living environments still structured along apartheid spatial divides with the odds stacked hugely against them, they also have huge amounts of creativity and passion and are no strangers to entrepreneurial activity. Most survive on a combination of 4 or 5 different ‘hustles’ that generate income, spanning arts, music, sports, food and developing and selling products and services.
Some of the main defining qualities of entrepreneurs – adaptability, resilience, adversity, creativity, innovation, experimentation, risk taking – are the very same skills required to survive in challenging living conditions where surprise, stress and uncertainty are abundant. South Africans are renowned for their ability to ‘make a plan’ out of anything, or even out of ‘nothing’.
In our early days of supporting youths to develop entrepreneurial activity, we were partnering with local business schools who offered traditional small business start up training, and while this worked for those who had been through the middle and upper ends of the public school system, it wasn’t hitting home at all with those who had been through the poorer end of the education system, and often left people more despondent than when they began, feeling incapable and sometimes even causing them to give up on ideas that they had previously been successful in moving towards.
Shifting our focus from promoting the formation of enterprises through traditional business school style training, onto recognising and acknowledging the incredible levels of entrepreneurial activity the youths were already engaging with as valid and worthy, and promoting the qualities and behaviours that support entrepreneurial success, meant that the youths could gradually improve the things they were already doing rather than being led to believe that they needed to be different to what they currently were in order to ‘succeed’.
As we focused our attention more onto self awareness, project management and communication skills, creating access and expanding networks through the simple act of gathering in diverse groups and the organising required, over time we have witnessed each other grow, slowly and sustainably, into healthier and stronger individuals and communities better able to self organise. While this method might produce a much slower trajectory of visible entrepreneurial enterprise development, we have seen it lead to healthier individuals and communities who are better equipped for whatever endeavours they wish to pursue, moving at a growth rate that best suits their individual circumstances.
Theresa Wigley, Amava Oluntu (South Africa)
SEEDS4youth: Collaboration in Action
One breezy September afternoon a group of SEEDS4youth job shadowers— South Africans alongside the Italians, German, and French teams — gathered together with local youth from different organisations. With paint and enthusiasm, everyone had the opportunity to add their mark. The mural attracted a lot of positive interest with passersby interacting with the painters. Some added their voice by painting words or images expressing the changes they see as a key.
Each stroke of paint and color was a conversation. Some used the universal language of image to express their ideas. Others infused the mural with poetic messages and bold typography, some using English and others writing in their own languages: a living multi-lingual dialogue.
Reflecting on the paint session: some of the youth workers found the experience transformative, imagining new possibilities for the power of art in reclaiming public spaces. Some saw connections between social activism and environmental movements, and how public artworks such as this could link to their country’s green or social justice initiatives in their communities. This mural was participatory democracy in action and perhaps similar initiatives could challenge gentrification back home?
As the mural has been photographed and shared online: it is a reminder that while our challenges may differ in different contexts, the desire for positive change unites us all and that we have the power to put our voice into public space and initiate conversations around CHANGE.
Claire Homewood, Amava Oluntu (South Africa)
A Shared Rhythm
What we heard in the stories came to life during our mobility, especially at the networking event in Muizenberg. The gathering brought together social and environmental change makers from across the area to celebrate strengths and build connections. At the entrance, a community asset map was displayed: a vibrant visual showing the people, places, and resources that form the foundation of local resilience. It wasn’t made by consultants or planners—it was co-created by the community itself.
Throughout the event, introductions led to stories, and stories led to ideas. It became evident that one of the most profound impacts of such a gathering was its ability to spark new relationships. For youth workers, especially those with backgrounds of migration or displacement, these spaces are transformative. Through networking, they can find allies, people who understand their professional roles and their personal journeys.
What made the event feel truly alive was its fluidity. Rather than sticking to rigid agendas, the organizers allowed space for co-creation. Participants were active shapers of the day’s flow. There were “open mic” sessions, spontaneous activities, and quiet corners for reflective dialogue. Every person there could see a piece of themselves reflected in the collective tapestry being created.
One of the most emotionally resonant moments was the collective drumming session that brought the day to a close. Dozens of drums and percussion instruments were laid out in a circle. No musical training was needed—only open hearts and willing hands. What began as scattered beats gradually found synchronicity. A shared rhythm emerged. Eyes met across the circle. Smiles broke out. Bodies moved. For those few minutes, language barriers disappeared.
In the rhythm of the drums, many felt released.
In the days and weeks after the event, the echoes of Muizenberg continue to resonate.
Ivana Ristovska, Eufemia (Italy)
International mobility – effective or useless?
In times of climate change and blatant waste of natural resources, it is important to rethink our habits and patterns of behaviour and change them if necessary. This should happen not only in our private lives, but also in our professional lives. One question we are frequently confronted with is how to deal with international mobility, especially when flying is unavoidable. Questions, statements and opinions swirl around in our heads: Are these trips still appropriate? With today’s possibilities, digital implementation is just as effective! Talking about sustainability and then flying around the world is hypocritical!
I have made the decision for myself that, in times of alienation, rising extremism and nationalism, and digital isolation, we need and should promote international mobility all the more. Not recklessly, not with unthinking activism and not for the wrong reasons. But consciously, as sustainably as possible and well planned. Under these circumstances, international mobility is a great asset for me. It broadens horizons, breaks down prejudices, promotes interpersonal contact and intercultural awareness. It brings the world closer together, and that is what we need right now.
Nicolas Bosch, Starkmacher (Germany)
Woodworking
One morning, we visited a Montesori school in Heidelberg. Behind the school’s small
fences, little children were attentively watching their elders across the street working with
wood. We understood their interest, as the spectacle was particularly interesting.
On the other side of the fence, there were two workshops: one for stone cutting and one for
wood engraving. The stated objective was to build benches to create a public space in front
of the school.
On one side, we had five children and a carer carving stone with a small hammer. These
were large blocks that had previously been broken by the same team. Stones were planted
in several places, and the children were able to strike with hammers until the block split
into several fragments. Afterwards, they continued their work to polish the stone and give it a usable appearance. On the other side, they were working with wood. Patterns have
been drawn, and the children use tools to carve the wood and engrave the designs. It’s a
long and meticulous task, and we’re eating up the children’s concentration. Another
supervisor helps assemble the pieces and create the base for the furniture that will be
placed there.
What’s interesting is the children’s autonomy. They are on the construction site and use all
the tools. The supervisors ensure their safety but never do it for them.
It’s difficult to implement this activity without the necessary supervision, but the idea of a
participatory construction site has existed for a long time in our community project. The
children’s joy and the educational value of independent manual construction rekindle this
desire!
Milena Lachmanowits, L’Engrainé (France)
