Profile | By Bimbola Bankole
Thato Kgatlhane: South Africa’s Social Entrepreneur who created solar-powered school bags out of waste for poor school kids then used as a source of light at night; thereby providing light for children to do their assignments. These bags also feature reflective materials that aid visibility in darkness, which allays the fear of kids being knocked down by cars as they walk to school early in the morning. “Each bag is fitted with a solar panel that charges as the child is walking to school. When they get back home, they can use it as a light for study”, says Thato. “We are offering dignity, safety and access to light.” Simply put, Thato’s company has created one product that has ultimately solved all the identified problems these disadvantaged school kids have had to face everyday.
At 18, Thato Kgatlhanye had decided to solve multiple problems faced by many underprivileged school kids in South Africa, especially in rural communities.
F
irst, safety: These poor children are forced to leave home early in the morning so they can make it to school on time. They walk as far as more than 30 minutes every day on roads that are not designed for pedestrian usage, exposing them to the danger of being hit by vehicles.
Second, these kids pack their books in shabby undignified plastic bags. Third, due to almost zero access to power supply, kids rely on candlelight to study when they get back from school, which also raises safety concerns and the question of ease of study.
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To create their product, Thato set up a sustainable manufacturing process. Each school bag is made of 20 plastic shopping bags that are up-cycled into a textile. All offcuts are used to design a signature pattern on the bags. “We’ve tried to create a company that does more with less. The indirect impact we are making is to our communities, teaching them the value in waste,” she says.
Thato sees the potential in everything. To her, there is latent possibility everywhere. Possessing a unique ability to see beyond the surface, she finds the extraordinary in the seemingly simple things. This social entrepreneur and businesswoman has taken something as ordinary as a plastic shopping bag and turned it into an innovative backpack, bringing In 2011, she and her friend, Rea dignity and hope to children across Ngwane, founded Rethaka, which South Africa and beyond. means “we are fellows”. The company recycles plastic bags and transforms She sees her bags the same way she them into solar-powered school bags. sees society. Not everyone would The school bags are charged during notice the potential in a plastic bag. the day as the kids walk to school and Thato thinks we all need to look a bit Driven by the entrepreneurship spirit she believed was inherited from her father and the empathic mind her mother embodied, Thato embarked on a mission to provide a solution that would encourage these children to safely attend school and learn effectively.
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