I started my career as social worker working in mental health care. For 12 years I worked as director of an NGO developing and providing community-based services for people with mental health problems in Budapest, Hungary. As a manager it was very frustrating to handle uncertainty, seeing the reluctance of our governments to invest into this field and jumping from one grant to another for many many years. Personally, I also felt sort of guilty. Managing this level of uncertainty, serving hundreds of clients, maintaining a team, developing and introducing new services required the same skills as running an enterprise but we were still living on grants provided by donors or burned the taxpayers' money. I wanted to see my organization being more independent and personally I wanted to prove that I am the same way a good manager as those running a successful business or establish a startup. That drove me to social entrepreneurship where I could keep being honest to my values but I could also could prove my managerial skills in a more independent way.
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My entrepreneurial journey started a long time ago after reading the book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki. It gave me some foundational insight into the need to own a business. As the years went by, I acquired a professional degree in Urban Planning and while designing neighborhood and city models and I discovered my passion for 3D designs. This passion led me into the game industry where I later founded my first company, Avena Games a mobile games development company based in Lagos.
Over the years I have participated in some business training from some reputable organizations such as the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Enterprise Development Center amongst others. I also acquired business development and project management skills from managing Avena. My entrepreneurial journey has led me to discover the concept of Social Entrepreneurship and how we could do more as businesses and as entrepreneurs than just making profits and engaging in CSR.
Currently, I am working on a social enterprise, Avena Interactive whose goal is to make interactive learning devices for educationally disenfranchised children to have the opportunity to learn in their mother tongue both within and outside the classroom. And with this, I hope to help bridge the educational inequality gap in Africa.