Thought.Africa bridges digital gap

Entrepreneur Joel Kaplan’s organisation Thought Africa is crowdfunding to provide 100 000 EduCare packs for disadvantaged children during the lockdown. As a Riversands Incubation Hub partner, Kaplan is no stranger to social entrepreneurship and had the idea of creating physical packs to encourage youngsters to learn to code and do DIY projects offline.

“Last week the corporate client I had lined up to sponsor this idea cancelled our arrangement. It’s such a critical initiative I didn’t want to let it languish as an unworkable solution so I created an e-commerce platform to crowdfund the project,” explained Kaplan.

The EduCare packs also contain a book with the headings: ‘I see’ ‘I think’ and ‘I wonder’ to encourage youngsters to tell their own story, articulating their hopes for the future and exploring ideas. Feedback is encouraged and there’s a laptop to be won.

“I’m optimistic that the community will recognise the value of these packs. I’ve already had pledges pouring in from the website.

We’re South Africans! We make a plan!” said Kaplan.