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Trust Freddy
Youth Interactive Writer
Maranatha Christian High school’s innovation team last week left in awe at the just ended Junior Achievement (JA) company of the year competitions held in Nigeria.
The team stood confidently, presenting a unique innovative learning application which simply requires the user to have an android device to easily access educational material that is adaptable to any setting.
After realising how Covid-19 decimated the educational system and widened the gap between rural and urban learners, the school developed this application which can be used in any setting.
For inventing an application that makes education accessible and explaining how these could potentially change lives of vulnerable students, Maranatha team scooped four regional awards that put them first, proving their mettle against eight other African countries that took part in the competitions.
There were nine countries and Zimbabwe scooped the first JA company of the year award which came with $1000 cash prize followed by Nigeria which took the second prize while Eswatini landed on third position.
The history-making pupils have now set their sights on the international stage where they will battle for top honours with global teams next year. Aptly known as study buddie, the application comes under the pupils’ own company known as Hekima Inc and it bridges the digital divide caused by differences in social classes.
The team was made up of four Lower Sixth pupils — Tinovonga Sagonda (17), Blessing Bvunzawabaya (19), In’utu Mubiana (18) and Kudzai Katambarare (17).
“Our App provides an opportunity for teachers to interact with students and they can also upload notes on the platform.
It also allows pupils to create study groups and we are hoping to create a community of teachers from all over Zimbabwe ,” said Mubiana, who is Hekima Inc production director.
Tinovonga Sagonda the company’s chief executive officer was over the moon saying it was a good opportunity for networking .
“It has been an exciting and educative experience in the running and maintenance of business,” Sagonda said. “We also got an opportunity to socialise and network with other students from other African nations as well as renowned business people.” Finance director Blessing Bvunzawabaya (19), who was similarly enthusiastic, said the competitions were instructive.
“This competition opened our minds, for me that was a win and coming back with a prize and making our country proud was a big achievement.
“We are going to use our cash prize to market our application for it to get global recognition ,we would love to see both developing and developed countries benefiting from our innovation, ” he said.
“The competition was stiff, but we are so happy, this is for us this is for Zimbabwe and from here we want to conquer the world,”
“We interacted with a lot of countries , learning new culture was a great experience for us because it was not only about business skills but also life skills, ” Kudzai Katambarare said.
The young entrepreneurs will represent Africa at the Ralph de la Vega Global Entrepreneurship Competition, which will bring together winners from the six regions of the world.
Company of the Year Competition is JA Africa’s annual celebration of winning teams from the JA Company Program, a program which equips senior secondary school level students with the entrepreneurial skillset and mindset to solve problems in their communities by launching a business venture and unleashing their entrepreneurial spirit.
Online Reporter