Hephapreneurship for Social Change and Transformation in South Africa

Abstract

Disability is equated to no education, employment and training in many developing countries around the world. Within the field of entrepreneurship education, there is a dearth of models specifically designed to address education, employment and training of people with disabilities. Hephapreneurship is a neology and an alternative model aimed at filling this sustainable development gap. Crafted within the field of career psychology, hephapreneurship finds expression in the Fofa (fly) project of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The project aims to assist youth with little or no functional speech. Participants have different types of disabilities but they express a desire for work and making meaning of their lives. This alternative model is suggested within the multi-sectorial context of career guidance and disability in order to address the disability employment problems experienced by many disabled people. The model follows the philosophy of existentialism with a social constructivist and transformative paradigm in helping youth with little or no functional speech to make meaningful contributions to their lives and those of others.Hephapreneurship is perceived to bring hope to the hopeless.