A Leading pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is currently running a Making More Health (MMH) Venture4Change idea competition for university students in Kenya. Currently, the company’s social entrepreneurial initiative MMH (Germany) is partnering with Kibabii University along with the University of Eldoret, Moi University, and NGOs to foster social entrepreneurial solutions for Kenyan society. The program challenges university students to develop and implement innovative ideas to foster hygiene, food safety, waste management, and health in Kenya.
The University participated in the first phase of the competition that focused on food safety. It ended in March 2022. As a follow-up and in preparation for the 2nd Phase of the competition, partners from Venture4Change programme visited Kibabii University on Thursday 23rd June, 2022. The representatives, led by the Director for Venture4Change Ms. Hinke Rosekamp were received by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Planning, Partnerships, Research and Innovation) Prof. Dr.-Ing. Benedict M. Mutua.
Prof. Mutua highlighted the gains made from the first phase of the competition stating that the ideas generated by the young student innovators complemented the Government of Kenya’s Big 4 Agenda. With the huge interest arising from the students’ community to join the competition, he was upbeat that Phase 2 will be bigger and better.
On her side, Ms. Hinke challenged innovators to go beyond just winning the competition.
“Our purpose is not only to get a winner. We are looking for ideas that shall add value to the society. There is need to interact with social entrepreneurs across the globe to ensure that your ideas are in tandem with the needs of the world today,” she said.
The 2022 program is scheduled to run between May and November 2022 with a thematic area “Innovative Waste Management for Sustainable Development”. Students will participate in a workshop series of 6 six modules that address a wide variety of social entrepreneurship concepts geared toward helping the student access problems, identify market opportunities, and transform ideas into compelling solutions.
