This just in: Hand in Hand entrepreneur makes the Swedish news

02 Jun 2017

Hand in Hand Youth Award winner Catherine Wangari Maina outside the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in Stockholm

Sweden’s Dagens industri is the country’s source of financial news and expert opinion, the chronicler of its companies and business leaders.

Last month, the newspaper introduced readers to a business leader of a different kind: Hand in Hand Eastern Africa Self-Help Group member Catherine Wangari Maina. The 22-year-old Kenyan was visiting Sweden as one of Hand in Hand Eastern Africa’s Youth Award winners, selected for her budgeting app that helps young parents earning less than US $2 a day save a portion of their incomes.

“I always wanted to devote myself to social entrepreneurship,” she told the newspaper. “For me it meant a chance to change my life, and that’s the main thing. I believe destiny lies in one’s own hands. It’s all about making the world a better place.”

Dagens industri paired Catherine with Elsa Bernadotte, a young Swede whose app aspires to reduce food waste, for a fascinating conversation about using business and technology to make the world a better place. Whether in Sweden or Kenya, they learned, some challenges facing social entrepreneurs are universal.

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