Innovation with impact

Careerdue is a project close to the heart of its founder, Lelia Lelia, a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Founded as a platform providing mentorship and support for youth in Lesotho’s communities, it aims to fill a gap that Lelia missed when he was in high school.

“Looking back, I had a range of options for study at university, but I didn’t have access to career guidance or proper mentorship to guide my decisions,” he says.

“With Careerdue, our goal is to fill that gap and connect students with mentorship and career guidance so they can find a future they enjoy.”

Today, Careerdue is on the way to delivering on that goal with three full-time tutors, an on-the-ground mentorship hub and a web platform in development. This along with regular seminars, workshops and community events.

“We’ve been able to help lots of students, and even the response from parents has been really positive,” Lelia says.

This is impressive for a project that started in 2016 with mentoring held over WhatsApp. But it’s biggest boost came when Lelia joined the 2017 cohort of UCT’s Mastercard Foundation Scholars and applied to the Scholars Entrepreneurship Fund (SEF).

That application was a success, and they received a USD 3 000 award to keep the momentum going. “Winning the award helped us scale-up our project and build a website. We were also able to buy advertising materials so we could promote to a wider reach of students,” he says.

Lelia, who graduated with a Master’s in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development from UCT, says the win was validation for the project and the good they were doing for young people.

“Even before we won the money, we were helping students with applications to UCT and for scholarships,” he says. “We really felt the project was making an impact and winning was recognition.”

Supporting innovative projects like Careerdue that address social challenges in Africa’s communities is at the heart of the SEF. A pilot project of the Mastercard Foundation, it’s currently in its fourth round of funding, and has so far awarded USD 80 000 to 28 of UCT’s Scholars and alumni. The Mastercard Foundation has a strong focus on developing entrepreneurship in its Scholars and encourages them to initiate projects that make a social impact.

“SEF funded projects are well-researched, innovative ideas that present clever and new ways of addressing local problems,” says Program Manager, Carol Ojwang. “It gives projects a kick-start to get off the ground and make a difference in communities across Africa.”

This is important, says Lelia, because even the most meaningful social entrepreneurship ideas need to have a solid business plan.

“As much as Careerdue is a social venture, we need to keep funds coming in to keep it running, keep paying staff and attracting students. Otherwise, it’s going to fail,” he says.

With the next round of SEF awards being announced in December 2020, Lelia is part of the review committee selecting the winners. And he’s excited.

“We’re looking at a batch of very good projects that aim to address social challenges and create employment opportunities in the communities,” he says. “We hope to help the next projects deliver on that.”