Archives for August 2015
Painted Stairs
Abandoning the flat canvas of buildings, some street artists take to the stairs, transforming them into magnificent works of urban art. It doesn’t matter whether it’s with paint, plants, mosaics or wallpapers – the end goal is beauty, shared and enjoyed by all. This phenomenon is not a localized one and is happening all around the world. These are 20 of the world’s most stunning stairs:
Ottawa, Canada
Philadelphia, U.S.A.
Morlaix, France
Targu Mures, Romania
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sicily, Italy
Valparaiso, Chile
Liège, Belgium
Berlin, Germany
Tokyo, Japan
London, England
Seoul, South Korea
San Francisco, U.S.A.
San Francisco, U.S.A.
Auckland, New Zealand
Tehran, Iran
Poznan, Poland
Sicily, Italy
Heidelberg, Germany
Seoul, South Korea
Source – Unknown
Mama Mimi’s Business Overview
Business Overview
Mama Mimi’s is a for profit micro business creating Sustainable Jobs, while supporting local communities.
The fact that Mama Mimi’s derives its income through premix sales guarantees an ongoing partnership with our bakers. With just over 300 Mama Mimi’s Bakeries and many lives positively changed we are confident that we are on the right track towards creating true upliftment.We work to find and support entrepreneurs who are interested in becoming bakers to run their micro-business selling baked goods to their neighbours / community:
Mama Mimi’s Micro Bakery
We provide a complete turn-key operation which includes a wood-fired oven and all equipment required to start a micro-bakery. (List below)
The oven is steel, hard-wearing, low-maintenance and ingeniously designed to heat up evenly with no cold spots within it. It requires a wipe of sunflower oil from time to time to keep the steel rust-free (maintained much like a potjie pot). The closed fire box is designed to be an extremely efficient heat source; consuming low volumes of wood and creating almost no smoke. The oven can be used indoors as a safe source of heat (a flue may be advised) and two or three pots can be used on top of the oven which acts as a hot plate.
We provide ongoing supply to the bakery with Premix, a pre-packed, portioned out formula of ingredients that provide consistent taste, size and nutrition to the end product.
Following recruitment we train the baker(s) for 2 days and provide ongoing mentorship of their business. This is essential for our business as Mama Mimi’s is an incentive-based model where our success in supplying Premix is directly linked to the entrepreneur’s success as a baker, simply put -the better the baker does the better Mama Mimi’s does.
Immediate Profit For Bakers
The Baker simply provides flour, water and wood to the business. A simple and convenient production process produces 8 loaves of bread per hour, and 5 large pizzas per hour (a pizza requires 12 min in the oven).
We also supply conveniently packaged and pre weighed premixes to make a multitude of other income generating bakery items for example, Mama Mimi’s Snowball Mix, Chelsea Bun Premix and Scones Premix etc.
We can demonstrate that should a baker work 5 hours per day and produce and sell a combination of products that they can net around R4k per month. This can be achieved at a lower price point than any other similar products currently in the market. Productive bakers working longer hours with varied products can earn as much as R12k per month.
It is an important aspect of the business that a baker, following their training, will be able to immediately begin producing and selling bakery products to their community.
Convenience
Mama Mimi’s is all about creating convenience and simplicity for the baker to maximize their output. There a numerous ways of adding value to a loaf of bread that makes commercial sense for the baker e.g. making sandwiches, garlic and specialty breads and quarter loaves.
We encourage and guide on product, marketing and production innovation throughout our training and mentoring relationship with the bakers.
Pricing
Depending on the training an initial mentorship required Mama Mimi’s micro bakeries cost between R9 500 – R15 000.
Mama Mimi’s Business Includes
- Complete Oven
- Assembly Instructions
- 2 Days Formal Training (including Course material and practice stock)
- 3 Sets of 4 Loaf Baking Trays
- Large Mama Mimi’s Sign Board
- Scale
- Set of Gloves
- Dough Cutter
- 2 x Mixing Bowls
- 1.5Lt Measuring Jug
- Spanner
- Wooden Spoon
- 100 Promotional Pamphlets
- Recipes
- 2 x Aprons
- 2 x Caps
- Bread Cutter
- Pizza Tray
- Pizza Cutter
- Snowball/ Muffin Tray
- Axe
- Cheese Grater
- Rolling Pin
- Wooden Cutting Board
- Bread Knife
- Timer
With millions of unemployed, potentially hard working people in our country your assistance is needed. With your funding and the Mama Mimi’s business model we can create life changing opportunities for this segment of our nation.
Together Changing Our Nation One Loaf At A Time
Honorary Membership – Golden Key International Honour Society
Wendy Luhabe has been invited to be an Honorary Member of Golden Key International Honour Society.
Golden Key is the world’s largest collegiate honor society. Membership into the Society is by invitation only and applies to the top 15% of college and university sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well as top-performing graduate students in all fields of study, based solely on their academic achievements. As an international honor society with more than 400 chapters at colleges and universities around the world, Golden Key is committed to a high standard of scholastic achievement, and an ethos of integrity, innovation, respect, collaboration and diversity.
With more than 2 million members, including honoraries like Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and Bill Clinton, Golden Key carries an esteemed legacy of achievement. Members are a community with a linkage to widely respected individuals and ideals … all part of the continuum of excellence.
Golden Key offers its members exclusive opportunities and connections through $1,000,000 in scholarships and awards, partnerships with major corporations, career advancement and graduate programs. The Society also works with university faculty and administrators to develop and maintain one of the highest standards of education in the world. https://www.goldenkey.org/
![Letter To Wendy - Page 1](http://www.wendyluhabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/page1.jpg)
![Letter To Wendy - Page 2](http://www.wendyluhabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/page2.jpg)
Wendy Luhabe – Lifetime Achievement Award – 12th Annual Standard Bank Top Women Awards
Once in a long while something unexpectedly amazing happens.
![Strike a Pose Photography-1708](http://www.wendyluhabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Strike-a-Pose-Photography-1708-200x300.jpg)
There’s absolutely nothing you’ve done to earn it. And you didn’t happen to be at the right place at the right time either . When it happens it feels like it’s just what your soul desperately needed but, you were not conscious of the need. This is how I felt when social entrepreneur extraodinnaire and mentor Wendy Luhabe asked me to attend the 12th annual Standard Bank Top Women Awards on her behalf where she was being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. I accepted her request without hesitation. It was Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg who said “if you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” and this is exactly what I did and I inquired about the details later.
On the evening of August 6 at Emperors Palace the stage was set for one of the biggest and glitziest event dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in South Africa. It felt like a dejavu moment for me because when I was in my teens I used to watch live broadcast of the National Shoprite Women of the Year Awards and I imagined myself collecting an award just like the featured women. Fast forward to my twenties- I started feeling that the goal was unattainable because of the challenges I had faced along the thorny and rocky path to success. I was doubting whether I was still in the running to be a successful business woman.
The entire experience of the evening: from getting dressed at home to that moment when I walked to the stage to accept the award gave me taste of how it feels like to be recognised for one’s accomplishments. IT FEELS AMAZING! The experience will go down as a defining moment of my life.
![Vuyokazi Dlamini received award on behalf of Wendy.](http://www.wendyluhabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Strike-a-Pose-Photography-1706-300x200.jpg)
I realise that we need mentors and role models to inspire us so that our circumstances don’t eclipse our purpose, but we also need to lead at some point. In five or ten years from now I’ll pay it forward by sharing the stage with another young person when I’m accepting my award.A mentor is someone who sees the best in you even when you’ve given up on yourself. A mentor reminds you of the dreams that you once had and challenges you to pursue them relentlessly. I don’t have the words to articulate everything that this experience has done for me but all I can say is Thank You to Wendy Luhabe from the deepest and truest part of my being.
Congratulations on the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award appropriately reflects your life’s work as a champion for the economic freedom of women. May you grow from strength to significance!
Mentee, Vuyo
Pictures by Strike Pose Photography