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Fiona Ruzha Youth Interactive Writer

Queen Elizabeth students have shown just how much girls can achieve when they opened a company that manufactures biodegradable diapers.

They have since gotten 5000 Euros from Deloitte Germany to start operations by making prototypes of the Diapo Diapers.

A group of seven girls came up with the concept and named their company Diapo Private Limited.

They were assisted by a mentor who assisted them to join Emergination Africa, an organization that seeks to “develop Africa’s future workforce by curating real world bespoke career readiness curriculums, trainings, competitions and virtual classrooms designed for secondary school learners to realize their path along the education to employment highway.“

Diapo Pvt Ltd chief executive officer is Natalie Nyika, finance manager Zvikomborero Mutangamiriri, productions manager Ruth Mushando, and the marketing director is Lucy Kloppers – all U6 students at Queen Elizabeth. Their advisor Spencer Manhanga.

Speaking during the 2021 Innovation Accelerator Circle Programme held last week, Lucy narrated how they came up with the concept.

“Our journey started last year when we heard about MBCC Emergination Africa competitions and as science students we decided to participate.

“The journey was not easy because most girls dropped out due to various commitments and we were left as seven girls.

“So we then decided to come up with manufacturing of biodegradable diapers upon the realisation that disposal diapers were bad for the environment because poor disposal of diapers is a leading cause of diseases.

“After entering into the competition we won first place at nationals,” she said.

She said Emergination Africa stopped for a while due to Covid-19 disruptions.

“The organization failed to secure sponsorship until Deloitte Germany came on board to sponsor eight teams in the country.

“So between July and August we went through a series of master classes where we were taught on business finance, business marketing, how to do a roadmap design and problem statement which were vital in the development of this project,” she said.

She said they are aimed to start by producing 100 diapers following the release of funds by Deloitte Germany last week.

“We were granted funds amounting to 5000 euros so that we can further pursue production of these diapers.

“However, it is not enough to purchase machines and full scale production hence as a team we decided to buy smaller machines and for now we are producing small quantities.

“After doing cost analysis we realised that we needed US$300 000 because machines only cost US$200 000 and US$100 000 is set aside to start producing and paying workers.

“But since we are making our diapers from banana stems and protein fiber it won’t cost much but we would need investment that we would need of about US$42 000 to start stage by stage.”

The Queen Elizabeth ladies won six of the eight awards from Emergination Africa and were by far the most impressive team.

Their school head Mrs Rayo said she was proud of their achievements and their entrepreneurial ideas will inspire a lot of the pupils at the school and the girl child in general.

Acting District Schools Inspector Mbare- Hafield District Mr Julius said the girls’ project symbolises entrepreneurship and is in sync with the Competence Based Curriculum which accentuates the acquisition of skills in learning.

“As Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education we are particularly ecstatic about Diapo’s business venture, as it is in line with the Curriculum Framework which promotes employment creation rather than mere job seeking citizens.

“The Competence Based Curriculum seeks to inculcate skills, values and attitudes in addition to cognitive, intellectual development.

“The CBC recognizes that there are numerous skills and competence inherent in the learner and the role of the school is to identify and nurture these.

“The system will produce a holistic learner in possession of exit profiles and Queen Elizabeth’s Diapo Pvt Ltd is testimony to this,” he said.

Farai Mushawasha, country director for Emergination Africa said the QE Diapo team was easily the most impressive company that has been formed by students over the last two years.

Mr Nikolai Anderson the CEO of Deloitte Germany , who was visiting Zimbabwe with his family, also took time to attend the event at Queen Elizabeth.