Taking Quality Control seriously: Godza is the Quality Controller at Streetwires. He is a young man that started to work at the company on October, 2004, the first job that he had was artist and was promoted to his actual position on 2007, due to his willingness to learn and grow in the company.

Amashishini (Business) can do mangalisayo (amazing) things: A visit to the Xhosa Culture

I had the opportunity to meet a woman that is making amazing things for her community, promoting the Xhosa culture of South Africa. Xhosa is one of the native groups in South Africa (Nelson Mandela comes from the Xhosa region) and is also one of the eleven official languages in the country. The language uses different clicking sounds and one could identify a Xhosa from the different clicking on their speaking. There are thousands of Xhosa villages in Transkei or the Wild Coast of South Africa. One of these villages is Ngxingxolo, home of Mama Tofu.

Streetwires is delighted to announce that the founder of Streetwires, Patrick Schofield has been selected as the winner of the Ernst & Young / FNB / Schwab Foundation ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year for South Africa’ for 2008.

The artists form the heart of the company and define what Streetwires is. This business is doing great things, since its main objective is the creation of sustainable jobs for the people in South Africa. Streetwires has implemented a nice production chain. This is allowing the company to accept big orders without reducing the quality on the different hand made products. At the moment, approximately 90 individuals make up the organization, they influence not only directly to their families and friends but to the rest of the industry.

Gonzalo Aramayo, is a Bolivian that joined MBA’s Without Borders to help three art craft companies in Cape Town, South Africa. He hopes that his knowledge in marketing, product development, and ICT’s, his previous experience in Development projects, his ability to laugh and his passion to teach will be useful for the assignment starting in July. Gonzalo will be working as a Business Development Associate for Streetwires, Mielie and Kunye in Capetown, South Africa, supporting the organizations in developing a marketing and sales strategy, information and knowledge systems, cost and price analysis, as well as improving the operations efficiency of the South African art-craft work.