Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Faith Ndlovu
Entrepreneur and mental health awareness champion, Sipho Mazibuko, has made it to the finals of the prestigious SHE Awards 2024 as she is part of the women who are listed in the Social Founder of the Year category.
SHE Awards are an annual non-monetary business awards ceremony for women entrepreneurs in Africa. They were launched in 2021.
The awards were created to serve the strategic objectives of recognising, rewarding and retaining high-quality creative entrepreneurship, innovation, research and development resulting in sustainable women-led small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
They exist to recognise and appreciate women founders developing Africa while creating jobs through entrepreneurship, and also motivate others who are yet to start their own businesses.
Mazibuko’s nomination at the awards is a testament to her remarkable contributions to Zimbabwe’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and her commitment to empowering women and communities.
She believes her different initiatives including Mental Voices, Esteemed Business Women Zimbabwe as well as Miss Rural Zimbabwe are the flagships, which got her nominated at the awards.
Mental Voices is a non-governmental organisation, which gives women a voice about their mental health conditions, an outlet to vent their emotions and get the assistance they need to diagnose their grievances, live a healthy and full life with mental illness, cope with it and dismantle the stigma.
Esteemed Business Women Zimbabwe is an organisation that empowers women and seeks to capacitate female entrepreneurs and help unlock business opportunities for thousands of small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Mazibuko, who is a former Miss Bulawayo (1992), expressed excitement and gratitude for the nomination, proudly raising the Zimbabwean flag on the global stage.
“I was deeply touched that people in other countries recognise my work. I am incredibly happy that the SHE Awards encompass many countries across Africa and beyond. It’s an honour to be raising the Zimbabwean flag high on such levels.
“I am working with different women as well as men on various initiatives that I believe are the ones, which got me nominated. As their leader, I hope that this nomination is ground-breaking and we will have more and more young women from Zimbabwe who will be recognised by the awards,” said Mazibuko.
