Since the turn of the millennium, Zimbabwe has witnessed a raft of socio-economic and political problems characterised by hyper-inflation; shortage of basic commodities; dwindling fiscal reserves; ballooning domestic and foreign debt; falling standard of living and high levels of migration. The devastating effects of the Aids pandemic have not helped the situation. With estimates indicating that there are more than million orphaned children, social security programmes have been overstretched resulting in the State failing to adequately provide for the needs of these orphans in the country. It is against this background that the study sought to explore the community level initiatives that communities are taking to meet the needs of orphans through community based programmes. The goal of the study was to explore the contribution of social entrepreneurship in meeting the needs of orphans in the Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe. The study was conducted using a qualitative research approach. The study was exploratory and the type of research was applied. The collective case study design was utilised. A total of twenty participants took part in the study; including six children who were benefiting from the income generating projects, four key informants who work closely with the projects as well as ten villagers who were involved in the day to day running of the projects. The participants were selected from two villages that have the projects benefiting orphans. The participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected from the children and key informants by way of interviews and from the villagers through focus group discussions. The findings show that the government of Zimbabwe lacks capacity to meet the needs of orphans due to the socio-economic and political challenges and as a result, communities in Mberengwa district have taken the initiative to care for the orphans in their area through income generating projects. The income generating projects are social entrepreneurial ventures in that they aim at generating profits which are channelled towards meeting the needs of the orphans. Through the income generating projects, the orphans in Mberengwa district are able to access their needs which include food, education, clothing, shelter, birth registration and protection from abuse. Findings also indicated that in the Mberengwa district, orphan care is viewed as a community, rather than individual responsibility. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the communities in Mberengwa have inherent strengths which make it possible for them to work together in achieving common objectives. Consequently, their social ties and close social relations enable them to work together to deal with problems confronting them collectively. vi projects benefiting orphans. The participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected from the children and key informants by way of interviews and from the villagers through focus group discussions. The findings show that the government of Zimbabwe lacks capacity to meet the needs of orphans due to the socio-economic and political challenges and as a result, communities in Mberengwa district have taken the initiative to care for the orphans in their area through income generating projects. The income generating projects are social entrepreneurial ventures in that they aim at generating profits which are channelled towards meeting the needs of the orphans. Through the income generating projects, the orphans in Mberengwa district are able to access their needs which include food, education, clothing, shelter, birth registration and protection from abuse. Findings also indicated that in the Mberengwa district, orphan care is viewed as a community, rather than individual responsibility. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the communities in Mberengwa have inherent strengths which make it possible for them to work together in achieving common objectives. Consequently, their social ties and close social relations enable them to work together to deal with problems confronting them collectively. It was concluded that income generating projects based on social entrepreneurial principles are a critical poverty alleviation and social protection mechanism for orphans in the Mberengwa communities as they lead to meeting their needs and furthermore, alleviate social problems in the community. In order to respond to the gap created by the government’s lack of capacity to care for the orphans, social entrepreneurship through income generating projects can be utilised to achieve social protection and poverty alleviation goals more so in the country’s quest to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Recommendations include the need to review the legal and policy framework governing the care and protection of orphans in the country to include community-based programmes. Furthermore, it is recommended to strengthen traditional orphan care structures in facilitating income generating projects based on social entrepreneurial principles as they have the propensity to help meet the needs of orphans at the community level. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

The aim of the present thesis is to study the factors that affect social entrepreneurship from the perspective of the entrepreneur. The initial review provides definition of key terminology and a summary of the development of the concept of social economics, the relation between social entrepreneurship and social politics as well as that of social entrepreneurship and social work, and the specifics of company management in social enterprises. Ultimately, a review of the present state of social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic is presented. The data for qualitative research was collected during interviews with 12 executives of various social enterprises based in 9 regions of the Czech Republic using the semi-structured interview method. Collected data was analyzed using inductive-deductive analysis. The research focuses on the requirements of providing employment for disadvantaged persons and the prerequisites and drawbacks of running a social enterprise. The research has shown that the main drawbacks of social entrepreneurship include insufficient knowledge of the specifics pertaining to the target group of employees; profit-oriented motivation; insufficient business training; excessive demands on the performance of disadvantaged employees; insufficient skills and working habits on the part...

Social economy is a quickly developing segment of the national economy worldwide. An increasing number of both profit and non-profit organisations in the Czech Republic adhere to the principles of social economy. The legislation for social enterprises has not been drafted yet, which, first, is a drag on the development of social enterprising in the private sector, and, second, hampers its acknowledgement on the part of government institutions which, lacking the legal framework, are not capable of working with this phenomenon. Hence, a legal framework should be the first step towards support to social enterprising, in particular a framework on social integration enterprises employing people with a remarkably restricted access to the labour market. The goal of this thesis is to assess the validity of formerly proposed indicators to identify the characteristic features of social enterprises for the Czech Republic and to present proposals for potential adjustments to them. The thesis also identifies areas in which support to social enterprises is necessary so that they would be able to comply with the individual indicators. Keywords Indicator, people disadvantaged on the labour market, social economy, social enterprise, work integration social enterprise, social entrepreneur.