Launched in February 2024, Deraya for Entrepreneurship in the south Project aimed to raise awareness and promote an entrepreneurial culture across the southern region in Libya and focused it’s activities in nine municipalities (Sebha, Murzug, Kufra, Ghat, Brak Alshati, Alsharqyia, Algurda, Bent Baya, Ubari). With essential training, mentoring, and sharing resources with aspiring entrepreneurs, we hope to see the emergence of viable projects across these municipalities, contributing to their economic growth and creating jobs.
In each of the nine targeted municipalities, we ran a Start-Up Weekend. That involved an intensive two-day training program, which aimed to motivate participants to consider the needs of their community, and develop innovative solutions to address them. Across the two days, participants formed teams, developed ideas and worked on pitching their projects to guest judges invited to provide feedback and consultancy on their projects. In total, we received a total of 3681 applicants, of which we shortlisted a total of 421. Participants ranged between the ages of 17 and 35, with a balanced gender distribution to ensure equality and inclusivity.
The Start-Up Weekends were a success, with various teams participating across each targeted municipality. As an example, we would like to present the Organic Farm Project in Sabha. This project aimed to establish organic farms using precise soil measurements and optimal nutrient percentages across Sabha. The team identified that many farmers in the region lacked the knowledge and guidance for effective farming, and sought to address this through the provision of training and resources to local farmers. Through the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices, the community and environment could benefit alongside the farmers. The municipality expressed its thanks to the project team for this idea, stating its excitement to see the positive impact the project would have on the local farming community.
And by utilizing social media, Moomken org’s team was able to ensure effective participation in the initiative. Communication methods provided equal access to opportunities for all demographics. This included youth, women, internally displaced persons, and other marginalized groups, with our media team collaborating with local female influencers to create promotional content for the project.
In addition to social media, we sought to provide educational content to aspiring entrepreneurs through an online webinar platform. These webinars ran from March through July, with our team reaching out to experts across the different fields of entrepreneurship and business to serve as speakers. Which discussed various topics related to entrepreneurs from entrepreneurship and its general social impact, the foundations and methods of marketing start-ups , financial management and obtaining funding for innovative ideas, creative thinking and future planning for entrepreneurial projects, the role of innovation and digital transformation and the importance of social relations in developing business ideas, and the role of society in entrepreneurial projects and their impact on it, along with laws and regulations affecting the entrepreneurial journey.
Upon the completion of each webinar, a case study was produced. These case studies provide in-depth summaries of the information covered in each webinar, including each topic and the insights shared. It serves as a resource for attendees to revisit, and helps in promoting the webinars content to a wider audience, extending the impact of the Deraya project beyond the live sessions. We hope that these webinars can help empower potential entrepreneurs through valuable educational content that enhances their skillsets.
Following on from the Start-Up Weekends, Moomken org organized a two-week Hackathon to conclude it’s activities with Deraya for Entrepreneurship in the south Project. The online Hackathon continued for 2 weeks between June 27th and July 14th, it aimed to encourage participants to collaborate and think creatively, fostering a culture of innovation among aspiring entrepreneurs. This event was implemented through live Zoom sessions, helping promote equal access to resources and reducing carbon emissions associated with transportation. Following a registration phase, the Moomken team shortlisted 8 teams from a pool of 143.
In the first week, teams participated in intensive training sessions run by expert trainers, which helped in developing participants' ideas and skills. Additionally, teams were assigned mentors, who provided guidance to teams along the way. Following the kick-off event to introduce the event, teams began on the development phase.
In the second week, the actual Hackathon competition began, with teams expected to work on their projects and prepare their project presentations. Three experts were invited to serve on the judging panel, evaluating the projects based on their innovation, feasibility, presentation and overall social impact The teams presented their projects to a jury consisting on Nour Al-Khamisi,representative from UNDP, Tamim Al-Deeb, an expert in entrepreneurship and emerging projects, and Mahmoud Abu Saloum, an expert in managing entrepreneurial projects. The evaluation was based on several criteria, including the idea, designing business plans, marketing, and creativity in work.
The winning team was Pro-tone, with the idea of an educational workspace and training center that supports new Highschool graduates, and university students with the necessary skills and knowledge to go into the job market, followed by the Zoom, the Sebha team with a training center for photographers and media related freelancers. In third place was the Tatweer team with an entertainment, social, and cultural center in Ubari. They were recognized for their outstanding innovation and impactful solution by the jury and the winners were announced in an online event with all the contributing participants and teams
Moomken org’s contribution with Deraya for Entrepreneurship was quite the experience for the project team working on a variety of offline and online activities, reaching out to new people and engaging with different enthusiastic youths and entrepreneurs to ensure efficiency and value for all the participants and audience through our awareness campaigns, webinars, start-ups and trainings, Deraya escalates the future for entrepreneurs from all over Libya, so stay tuned and keep up with Deraya for more to come!
