Today was the last general meeting of the year 2008. Once a month, all Streetwires’ employees attend this meeting to know what’s happen in the company about HR, Sales, Production and Finance. And everybody gets a chance for questions, request or comments.

KUNYE (Xhosa for “forward together”) is a company established by Alison Coutras in 1995 as a personal contribution to combating unemployment. Kunye trains and provides work to groups and individuals who handcraft products, using recycled material wherever possible. Designs are a fresh take on traditional techniques, with beautiful, contemporary results.

They make in particular some products from recycled paper, below you can see what they could create with our brochures. It could be a perfect gift box for Streetwires products!

Kunye Boxes

Last Tuesday (13th November), Patrick for Streetwires was awarded as the South African Social Entrepreneur 2008! Therefore he gains access to the meetings of the World Economic Forum as well as the Schwab Foundation’s global network, providing unprecedented opportunities to engage global decision-makers from the public, corporate, media and academic sectors to strengthen and expand the SW’s model.

Congratulations! We are so proud of this award!!! Patrick came at the studio on Friday to show us the trophee!

An overview about this competiton :

“In a country which is steeped in hope and potential but which faces enormous challenges, social  entrepreneurs have become change agents for society. They are individuals who seek to generate ‘social value’ rather than profit and create sustainable solutions that help society.

Ernst & Young and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship are pleased to recognise the efforts and achievements of these individuals through the annual South African Social Entrepreneur awards. The finalists were Malizole Gwaxula and Jacob Lief of Ubuntu Education Fund, Shane Immelman of Lapdesk, Charles Maisel of Innovation Shack, Trevor Mulaudzi of The Clean Shop and Patrick Schofield of Streetwires Artists Collective.

Please have a look on these initiatives, there are all so wonderful!

In its third year in South Africa, the Social Entrepreneur Awards are an element of Ernst & Young’s World Entrepreneur Awards Programme. Social Entrepreneurs are those innovators who implement practical and sustainable solutions to address problems in numerous areas including health, education, environment, access to technology and job creation. Whether for-profit or not-for-profit, these individuals and their organisations have transformational social change as a primary focus.

“These entrepreneurs are hailed for their initiatives which are having a profound positive effect on South Africans across many spheres of work and life. Ernst & Young is proud to recognise them, and wishes them well in their future endeavours,” says Zanele Xaba, Country Leader for the World Entrepreneur Awards Programme.”

Patrick Schofield MD of Streetwires was nominated this year as a finalist for social entrepreneur of the year, together with other 5 competitors. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, the SA Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses. It   recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs.

Each year the national Entrepreneur Of The Year winners from around SA meet in Johannesburg to be inducted into the Entrepreneur Of The Year Academy and vie for the title of Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Winners of all categories will be announced on the 13^th of November 2008 at Summer place, Hyde park in JHB. 

For more info, you can visit www.ey.com/za

Here was a really nice party yesterday evenning ! To launch our new Safari range, we invite people to join us to celebrate this event !

Below you can find the recipe for a nice party :

- a lot of good food

- some bottles of nice wine and beer

- round 50 happy & smiling people

- a pinch of intersting speeches

- a spoonful of songs from Streetwires chorus

- one very nice Safari Range

And it’s not only the birds & the bees that have been buzy with spring upon us, at Streetwires we’ve been sketching, bending & spindling to put on a bit of a show ourselves. And now with a little something to show for it – we’d be delighted to welcome people tomorrow to celebrate in what we do best – the creation of the extraordinary in wire & beads.

It’s Safari in the city this time around, the new ‘black’ being… well, beige, purple, khaki and, stripped – with eyes. What man attempts to imitate in coats, jackets & skirts, nature tends to do with aplomb, so, we figured we’d go with the ‘birthday-suit’ look.

Streetwires is on Facebook.

Join us on the group Streetwires’friends  to share your minds about our products or just to chat about hte SW project.

See you there !