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Saadiq: Challenge Accepted

Name: Saadiq Brey

Project: Challenge Accepted

Cape Town, Western Cape

challenge-accepted

Saadiq is turning his passion for leadership into action, and has begun an exciting project in the Western Cape. He and his team of fellow learners have always been passionate about social change, but never found the ‘right’ time to start – until he was offered the opportunity to attend the enke: Forum in July this year. Since then they have started running a project called ‘Challenge Accepted’; a leadership program challenging youth to look within themselves and bring together ideas of leadership and entrepreneurship.

For Saadiq, the ingredients for success are simple in words, but trickier on the ground. To get his peers inspired and ready to take on social issues, he has designed a one-day workshop focusing on self-exploration and innovative thinking.  He invites grade 10-12 learners to spend the day discovering their strengths, their passions and what fires them up, before then challenging them to use these to design an innovative project.  The simplicity of using alternative and sustainable sources of energy has provided great fodder for helping workshop participants discover some of these principles.

When asked why he wanted to tackle a complex issue like leadership development, Saadiq spoke of his vision for young people in South Africa and the current gap in the education system around building creative thinking.  He believes that, “with the correct guidance and mentorship the youth could develop into successful leaders and innovative young adults… [we need to] encourage our youth to be as productive with their time as possible.“

So far, Challenge Accepted has held three workshops in Cape Town with about 60 people in total. At every workshop, participants are asked to make a solar powered device out of a variety of resources with limited instruction. True to the spirit of the workshop, Saadiq proudly tells us how learners at Livingstone High School, “were able to make their very own powered charges out of tin cans.” This amazing result has been recognized by other organisations, and the Challenge Accepted team has since also been invited as guest speakers at the “Unconventional Conference” by an organisation called Re:Think Leadership.

Moving forward, the team is working very hard to establish an online platform, where they can chat, challenge and inspire more young people across South Africa. They plan to test this platform through the “10 & 20 second challenge”. This online platform will require greater time management for the team as they will need to  balance schoolwork and hosting the workshops, but so far Saadiq and his team have worked hard to create a project that will have lasting impact. We look forward to seeing what the next 6 months holds!

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