Sarah has been recognized as one of Oprah’s ‘heroines’ in the South African edition of O Magazine, spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and voted one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs of the year by Fortune Magazine for 2013.
Come and hear Sarah’s incredible journey, from a small home-based business to global social impact solution.
ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
Sarah Collings, Founder of WonderBag. Sarah is a South African adventurer, entrepreneur, and lifelong social activist. She thrives on challenges and has worked tirelessly over the past two decades to inspire change in the realms of gender-equality and environmental sustainability. Sarah has been recognized as one of Oprah’s ‘heroines’ in the South African edition of O Magazine, spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and voted one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs of the year by Fortune Magazine for 2013. Sarah grew up in rural, apartheid-era South Africa in the 1970s. Her childhood inspired her lifework focusing on empowering women living below the poverty line through grassroots efforts. Educated in both the UK and South Africa, Sarah spent much of her school years challenging apartheid. She returned to Africa to launch and run a horseback riding safari business in Botswana, and has since devoted her life to community projects. Among others, her career has seen her run for political office, set-up her own NGO, and help local communities create thriving business to support their livelihood. Sarah’s “light bulb moment” occurred in 2008 during a rolling power outage resulting from South Africa’s precarious electricity reserves. Wanting to still cook without the need for electricity, Sarah remembered her grandmother taking pots off the stove, wrapping them in blankets and furniture cushions, and hours later having a piping hot, perfectly cooked casserole to serve.
This age-old method used the retained heat of the food to complete the cooking process. Sarah started experimenting with heat-retention cooking and came up with a convenient, modernized model called the Wonderbag. The Wonderbag was created to ease the impact of health, social, economic, and environmental problems facing Africa and developing countries. The Wonderbag, simply put, enhances rural women’s quality of life by drastically reducing time spent cooking. These women need much less wood to feed their cooking fires; therefore, they and their children do not inhale so much hazardous smoke and the risk of burning (food and far worse, children) is reduced. Because the time required for collecting firewood fuel is also reduced, children, especially girls, also have more access to education than they would otherwise.
Her small home business has expanded into a global social impact solution. It is a dual model company with the Wonderbag Foundation, focusing on the poorest of the poor and a commercial retail business called Natural Balance. The retail side of the business targets mainly busy health conscious women. Who use the Wonderbag to save time and ensure her family are eating the healthiest meals possible. The busy Wonderbag factory produces hundreds of Wonderbags each day to meet local and international demand, especially through the Buy and Give programme and the Buy one Give one partnership with exclusive retail partner, Amazon.com.
The retail arm of Wonderbag ensures that for every Wonderbag bought online, a portion of the sale is donated to the Wonderbag Foundation so that a family in need in Africa can receive a Wonderbag. Since the bag has launched in 2008, over 700,000 bags have been distributed throughout Africa to families in need. Sarah has also taken the Wonderbag to the Middle East where it has been a gracious welcome in vast Syrian refugee camps.www.wonderbagworld.com.
Bookings close: Friday 10 April
Registration: 08:00 Tea/Coffee on arrival
Time: 08:30 - 11:30
Venue: Blowfish Restaurant, Blouberg
Investment: R175 via EFT or R195 if cash paid into account to cover cash deposit fee - no cash payments to be made at the door.
Members: R145.00
Marketing Table: R200 Non-Members Members: Free
A light snack will be served followed by Information Session and Networking.
Click here to book your seat.
If you have attended one of our events before book your seat here.
MEMBERS - Click here to book the 1 x 3 Min Speaker Slot (First Come, First Served)
Please e-mail us on Events@XtraordinaryWomen.co.za for any booking queries.
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