With South Africa and the global community having commemorated the annual World Aids Day on Thursday, one woman who was orphaned at the age of 16 is changing the world.
Sibu Sibaca was orphaned at the age of 16 owing to the ravaging virus, AIDS but that didn’t stop her from making an impact on people’s lives.
She is the founder of a social entrepreneurship entity or organisation, Impact Drivers, as she endeavours to positively impact the lives of young women.
Sibu grew up with no parents who both succumbed to AIDS and she became one of two million orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa at a time when the stigma around HIV/AIDS was rife.
Now 39, Sibaca is making a difference as an entrepreneur she deals in human capital and measures her profit but also about the number of lives she can impact.
“Very often, when we go into business, we go into business with one thing in mind, to make money and profit. And that’s great. Usually, when we talk profit, we talk profit in monetary value, and that, too, is great,” she tells IOL.
“However, the kind of gains that set my soul on fire are human gains. When I’m able to track someone’s gains from getting in touch with our organisation or working with our organisation and engaging with our organisation, I can see that their lives have changed. That’s the profit for me.”
The stunning Sibu reveals she met influential figures such as Richard Branson in her journey but she didn’t know who the Virgin Active founder was.
“When I first met Richard, he offered me a job, which I turned down because I didn’t know who he was,” she added.
“He reached out a couple of months later and invited me to the G8 Summit, and that’s when I asked for my job back, and I got to work with him for a couple of years, which was absolutely amazing. That’s where the love of social entrepreneurship blossomed for me. The love of business and the love of giving back.
“Impact drivers work primarily with our core group, adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 15 – 24.
“We engage with them on sexual reproductive health and life and secondly on personal development and thirdly on entrepreneurship, and we work around HIV prevention, treatment, and management.”
Through her organisation, Sibu hopes to groom a generation of young women who are able to take charge of their lives.
“For me, I will be happy when I see girls and young women who know who they are and where they come from. Girls and young women who are assertive and make key decisions from an informed position,” she concluded.
Main Image: Sibu Sibaca/Instagram
