Social entrepreneurship in Uganda.

Earlier this year, 18 students from various business related programs participated in an international project on social entrepreneurship. Together with 20 Ugandan business students from Mountains of the Moon University, they took part in classes, group assignments and field visits in Fort Portal (Western Uganda). The students visited various NGO's and social entrepreneurs. They got insight in the challenges and opportunities of Ugandan entrepreneurs and community and attended inspiring sessions on topics such as sustainable development, eco-tourism, social business modelling, etc. At the end of the program, students were asked to develop their own social business idea, based on Uganda's situation and context.

Joeri Brusselle, lecturer on sustainable development and CSR at HOGENT, was one of the driving forces behind this international project. A few years ago he noticed that within the business faculty there were hardly any projects in collaboration with developing countries, in contrast to the other faculties. And Joeri wanted to do something about this: "I think it's a misconception that cooperation projects with developing countries are less relevant for courses that are entrepreneurial and management oriented. On the contrary. Entrepreneurship is really ingrained in the Ugandan region where we were guests. Many students also had their own business there, often out of necessity: entrepreneurship is a survival strategy. If we combine this real-life situation with the knowledge of both HOGENT students and students from the host university, initiatives such as this really offer an added value. Anyway, it was an eye-opener and a very enriching experience for our students."

Organisations participating in the program were Rwenzori Forum for Peace and Justice, Iles de Paix, KadAfrica, Hofokam, Yawe Foundation, Kyaninga Child Development Centre, Protos, Enable Turaco Treetops, MMU, HOGENT and VLIR/UOS.