Sparks & honey, a marketing research agency, published a report on young people who were born after 1995. They are classified as “Generation Z”. According to researchers, they (generation Z), like millennials, are significantly different from all previous generations born before the digital revolution.
One of the main differences is that the representatives of Generation Z literally seek to change the world. According to the survey, 60% of young people under 21 years old want to have a positive impact on the surrounding reality. For comparison, this mark for the Millennium generation shows 39%. A striking example is perhaps the 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, who is actively discussed by the world media. A girl who is not indifferent to social problems has recently made a speech at the UN summit and is currently applying for the Nobel Peace Prize.
One of the most popular career areas for them is social entrepreneurship. If Mark Zuckerberg, a representative of Generation Y, founded Facebook at the age of 20, then representatives of Generation Z begin social activity even earlier, speaking at serious international conferences at 16 or even 13 years old. And a quarter of teens aged 16 to 19 are already active as volunteers.
Recently in Almaty, the final of the Social Impact Award contest took place; thereby, uniting young entrepreneurs to participate in the project, which started in May of this year. Over 90 teams submitted applications, and 17 projects got the opportunity to go through a three-month incubation program and the opportunity to work with mentors. The 9 best contestants presented projects to the jury.
We are proud to announce that the winners of the competition were students of Narxoz University: Anapyanova Madina, Meiramgaliyeva Erkezhan and Sharbekova Diana. The jury members awarded a grant in the amount of 600,000 tenge for further implementation. Their project UIDE is a project that was created to help older people to solve the problem of loneliness and lack of money. For this, talented students want to open a unique flower shop, which helps to focus public attention on the problem of the life of old people. Their main goal is to create a community where there is no place for loneliness, and to make UIDE a permanent source of income for retired people. The girls have already identified a viable business model and made their first sales.
The SIA Organizing Committee and experts in the field of social entrepreneurship evaluated projects according to four criteria: social significance, innovativeness, sophisticated business model and motivation of team members.
The competition provided all participants with not only educational and financial support, but also a networking platform where they made new friends. We express confidence that they will put all their efforts to begin their journey in solving important social problems of modern Kazakhstan.
Social Impact Award is the largest youth social entrepreneurship program in Europe, which began its activities in Kazakhstan in 2018. From March 2018 to September 2019, the program held 13 free workshops and six informative sessions at the universities of Almaty and Nur-Sultan for more than 300 young people. The program also supported 25 young teams in their development of social and entrepreneurial projects, of which seven projects received grants.