Reaching new heights: Mountaineer Richard Mabaso’s passion for youth empowerment.
On 21 June, Matsepo Koape interviewed the six-time successful summiteer of Mount Kilimanjaro, Richard Mabaso for the GIBS Entrepreneurship Development Academy’s ongoing Slaying in Your Lane series, proudly sponsored by South African-born short-term provider of capital, Fintech ProfitShare Partners.
A much-lauded humanitarian and social entrepreneur, Richard is also the innovator of the Trek4Mandela Expedition, the Caring4Girls Menstrual Hygiene Programme, and Vision 20/20.
With an education in international hospitality and communications management, Richard’s passion has been community development, with a distinct focus on youth. As Richard Mabaso OF THE Imbumba Foundation, he says that finding his niche began in earnest with his professors at GIBS Entrepreneurship Development Academy noting the importance of having a niche in the market.
“My niche had to be about empowering young people, firstly by investing in them so that they could multiply and duplicate efforts.” It’s about supporting one person and ensuring they support others in order to get the most benefit.
The three key initiatives of Imbumba include Trek4Mandela, now in its 10th year, which has so far enabled more than 300 people to realise their life-long dream of summiting Kilimanjaro. The key to this initiative is helping people to believe they can undertake this massive task.
The second initiative is Caring4Girls, which is a spinoff of Trek4Mandela, which is the largest distributor of feminine hygiene products to underprivileged girls across South Africa. Importantly, Richard notes, Imbumba’s partnership with schools is ongoing.
Initiative three is a programme called Vision 2020, which is a youth leadership, career guidance and matric support programme. “This is a programme that asks where a young person believes they will be in years to come,” Richard notes, adding that this enables Imbumba to review each person’s realistic expectation of where they want to be and the steps to take from now to then and counselling individuals to understand it’s also okay to change their minds.
In discussing his successes, Richard’s entrepreneurial spirit is front and centre in his life and all that he has strived to achieve and has accomplished. His attendance of the GIBS Entrepreneurship Development Academy has played an enormous part in how he has gone about planning and actually achieving his dreams.
Here, he shares the importance of lessons from life experiences and putting together the business plan that is the start of a fund-raising or community development organisation. Watch as the remarkable and passionate humanitarian Richard Mabaso shares insights every entrepreneur can learn from.
Click here to watch the recording.
