Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

Lakheni works in South African townships. If you’re not familiar with the townships of South Africa, during apartheid, these were the areas outside of city centers where black people were required to live. During these years, the South African government failed to invest in infrastructure such as water, sewage, electricity and roads. Without infrastructure, commerce and prosperity have been slow to return to the townships. Nokwethu Khojane, grew up under apartheid, and therefore lived in the township. As apartheid was reversed, she had the opportunity to go to university and to find a meaningful career. Her obvious intelligence and hard work gave her many career choices, but her heart was with the people still in the township. While at the University of Cape Town, Nokwethu studied early childhood education. She wanted to tackle the problems of poverty at the root. One of the courses she took was Social Innovation Lab. Her professor encouraged her to go to the crèche (daycare) in the township and to observe. E