November 6, 2019
THE TAKEDA YOUNG ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD 2019
The Takeda Foundation announces the Awardees of the Takeda Young
Entrepreneurship Award 2019. The highest award, the Best Entrepreneur Award
goes to Ms. Richa Shivangi Gupta, Co-Founder and Chief Program Officer of theLabhya Foundation, India. In India, children who study in public schools mostly
come from poor families with inadequate nourishment. Along with limited positiveand stimulating exposure at home and school, they tend to lose interest inlearning and have difficulty in achieving social-emotional growth. While growingup, they are severely disadvantaged due to a lack of ability for risk-taking,decision making, self-awareness and relationship management. According to astudy by an American NPO, “Social Emotional Learning”, an education incontrolling emotion, admitting the diversity of other people, and learninginterpersonal relationships, would improve not only children’s social skills, but,also their understanding of academic subjects. Ms. Richa Shivangi Gupta
founded the Labhya Foundation in 2017, and has been promoting SEL educationin public schools in the Delhi area by developing an SEL Happiness curriculum.
The SEL Happiness curriculum has been approved by the local government, andintroduced to more than 1,000 public schools in the area where 1.2 million
students and 50 thousand teachers have used it.
The Takeda Foundation recognizes that the Labhya Foundation has made asignificant contribution to the social-emotional growth of children by promoting
SEL education in public schools in the Delhi area, and gives Ms. Richa Shivangi
Gupta, the Best Entrepreneur Award for her efforts to found the Labhya
Foundation and to promote SEL education. The monetary prize for the BestEntrepreneurship Award is one million yen.
The Entrepreneurship Awards go to five young entrepreneurs: Ms. Anne K.
Rweyora of Uganda, Mr. Batbold Ganbat of Mongolia, Mr. Joveth P. Mahinay of
the Philippines, Ms. Lilian Nakigozi of Uganda, and Mr. Saeed A. Alfagieh ofYemen. The monetary prize for each of the Entrepreneur Awards is two hundred
thousand yen. An Awards Ceremony will be held on March 15, 2020, inconjunction with the Takeda Symposium in the Takeda Hall of the Takeda Building,
the University of Tokyo.
The purpose of the Takeda Young Entrepreneurship Award is to assist thedevelopment of young entrepreneurs who bring well-being to people as well as
to cultivate entrepreneurship. The Award requires the submission of supporting
letters from people who will benefit from the success of the proposed project as1

November 6, 2019well as the project proposal itself. Candidates should be young individuals under
forty years of age regardless of sex, organization or nationality.
This year, the Foundation received 350 applications from 70 countries.
Awardees were selected by a Selection Committee (Chair, Dr. Kunihiro Asada,Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo) consisting of outside intellectuals.
Finalists were selected by the selection committee following first and second
panel discussions; the Awardees were chosen following video presentations bythe finalists.

CONTACT
Norio Ohto, Ph.D
Senior Managing Director
The Takeda Foundation
The Takeda Building 4th Floor
The University of Tokyo
2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
113-0032 JAPANTEL: +81-3-3868-0160
FAX: +81-3-3868-0161
E.mail: ohto@takeda-foundation.jp
URL: www.takeda-foundation.jp

2

November 6, 2019
The Best Entrepreneur Award
Ms. Richa Shivangi Gupta, Labhya Foundation, Co-Founder andChief Program Officer, India“LABHYA FOUNDATION”

The Entrepreneur Award
Ms. Anne K. Rweyora, Smart Havens Africa, Founder andManaging Director,Uganda“Women and Housing in Uganda”

Mr. Batbold Ganbat, Hurh-Gol Farm, Founder, Mongolia“Effective utilization of land resources”

Mr. Joveth P. Mahinay, BEAGIVER Ventures, Inc., Founder andCEO,the Philippines“BEAGIVER Ventures, Inc.”

Ms. Lilian Nakigozi, Women Smiles Uganda, Founder, Uganda“Artificial Intelligence for Fistula Consultation, Diagnosis,
Referral and Treatment”

Mr. Saeed A. Alfagieh, ANAMEHANI LLC, Founder and CEO,
Yemen
“ANAMEHANI”

3November 6, 2019
THE BEST ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Ms. Richa Shivangi Gupta, Labhya Foundation, Co-Founder and Chief Program
Officer, India“LABHYA FOUNDATION”
In India, children who study in public schools mostly come from poor families
with inadequate nourishment. Along with limited positive and stimulating
exposure at home and school, they tend to lose interest in learning and havedifficulty in achieving social-emotional growth. While growing up, they areseverely disadvantaged due to a lack of ability for risk-taking, decision making,self-awareness and relationship management. According to a study by an
American NPO, “Social Emotional Learning”, an education in controlling emotion,admitting the diversity of other people, and learning interpersonal relationships,
would improve not only children’s social skills, but, also their understanding ofacademic subjects1. Ms. Richa Shivangi Gupta founded the Labhya2 Foundationin 2017, and has been promoting SEL education in public schools in the Delhi
area by developing an SEL Happiness curriculum. The SEL Happinesscurriculum has been approved by the local government, and introduced to morethan 1,000 public schools in the area where 1.2 million students and 50 thousand
teachers have used it.
The Labhya Foundation also sets up innovation hubs in their partner schools,
provides with teaching methods and learning materials suitable for the schools,
and shares responses of children and teachers among them. The sales ofteaching and learning materials at hubs account for 32 % of the SEL project. The
Labhya Foundation also has developed an evaluation system for the SEL project
involving research firms and universities, and confirmed that positive changes inattitudes have been seen in more than 70 % of children and 90 % of teachers.
The Takeda Foundation recognizes that the Labhya Foundation has made asignificant contribution to the social-emotional growth in children by promoting theSEL education in public schools in the Delhi area.

THE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Ms. Anne K. Rweyora, Smart Havens Africa, Founder and Managing Director,Uganda

12

https://casel.org/impact/
Meaning “within reach” in Sanskrit
4

November 6, 2019
“Women and Housing in Uganda”
Like many other African countries, much of the urban population in Uganda livein unsanitary slums. They spend most of their earnings on rent and can notovercome poverty. The situation for single mothers is even worse. Ms. Rweyora
lost her father when she was a child. Her relatives took her home and she waschased away from home by her own relatives. She has realized how important it
is to have a home. After graduation from college, she founded Smart Havens
Africa with a friend who had a similar experience, and as Managing Director, shestarted providing slum living women and young men with job opportunities andtheir own homes by constructing inexpensive houses with interlocking soilstabilized bricks. The ingredients of the bricks are locally available sand andcement or lime, and the bricks can be produced on site by pressing theingredients with optimum moisture. The bricks have special shapes so that theygrapple together with enough strength without mortar.
Anyone who would like to build a house should take courses to learn aboutproperty and financial management provided by Smart Havens Africa. Thecompany also offers installment payments depending on the customer’s financialsituation. They offer their customers a brick producing job at a higher salary thanusual so that customers can save money to build their own houses. So far, Smart
Havens Africa has built 18 houses at a cost one-fifth that of the usual house
construction cost.
The Takeda Foundation highly evaluates Ms. Rweyora’s efforts of providing
slum living women and young men with inexpensive houses by developing
interlocking soil-stabilized brick technology with local sand, and providing hercustomers with job opportunities, and property and financial management
knowledge.

THE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Mr. Batbold Ganbat, Hurh-Gol Farm, Founder, Mongolia“Effective utilization of land resources”
The project is a trial for modernizing Mongolian herding by introducing acommunity assisted dairy farm system into Hurh village, Khentii province,
Mongolia. In 1990, Mongolia adopted a market mechanism economy and people
started privately owning livestock and land. This privatization has caused anincrease in the number of herders and livestock, and subsequently has led to thesubdivision of the herding business, causing the degradation of pasture lands.
5November 6, 2019
Herders traditionally keep sheep to get cash by selling Cashmere, but once-ayear sales of Cashmere do not provide enough cash. The subdivision of theherding business and lack of cash from selling Cashmere have led to themigration of herders to cities. In order to address the current problem in theherding business, Mr. Ganbat started introducing a community assisted dairy
farm system by organizing community herders, introducing Piedmontese cows,and planting alfalfa and licorice on pasture lands. They also fenced pasture lands
to protect soil erosion and overgrazing. In 2012, with his colleagues, Mr. Ganbatbought Hurh-Gol Farm, a formerly state owned farm, and started cultivating wheat
on 2000 hectares of land. They buy Piedmontese cows with the profits gained
from selling wheat. Currently, 100 herder families in Hurh village have joined theproject.
The Takeda Foundation highly evaluates Mr. Ganbat’s leadership in addressing
the current challenge to Mongolian herding by introducing a community assisted
dairy system into Hurh village, Khentii province, Mongolia.
THE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Mr. Joveth P. Mahinay, BEAGIVER Ventures, Inc., Founder and CEO 、 thePhilippines“BEAGIVER Ventures, Inc.”
Mr. Mahinay was born into a poor family, but graduated from college andsucceeded in a business selling commercial bags. Based on his own experience,
he believes that education plays an essential role in escaping from poverty, andhas been helping children from poor families go to school since 2013. In 2017,
he founded BEAGIVER Venture, Inc. to help poor families build economic basesso that they can send their children to school. The company provides poorfamilies with sewing jobs at a salary twice that of the usual wage, and offers
scholarships to their children. Mr. Mahinay also arranges school boats with anNGO, and sets up water tanks for the communities so that children do not haveto fetch water from a remote water supply. He has invented a new sales systemof buy-one, give-one. In this system, customers pay for two bags, and get one
bag while the other bag is offered to children from poor families. The company
sells not only school bags, but also commercial bags, T-shirts, and ethnic bagsof the Yakan people. He also organizes a BEAGIVER Junior program to preserve
the traditional weaving of the Yakan people. The company has grown to a salesof 9,500,000 pesos (ca. 188,000 US$) and has helped 65,000 children and 174
schools. The principal of a junior high school reported that the drop-out rate has6

November 6, 2019
decreased, and that academic achievement has improved since the company
started helping children.
The Takeda Foundation highly acknowledges Mr. Mahinay’s efforts to help
children go school, provide scholarships, and relieve the burdens of children
fetching water by setting up water tanks in the community .
THE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Ms. Lilian Nakigozi, Women Smiles Uganda, Founder, Uganda“Artificial Intelligence for Fistula Consultation, Diagnosis, Referral andTreatment”
This is a project offering fistula patients web consultation by AI, which provides
advice so that patients can get information about fistula, receive diagnosis, andtake surgery if necessary. Fistula is an abnormal connection between the vagina,
rectum and bladder that develops after prolonged and obstructed labor. InUganda, 1900 cases of fistula occur every year, and 75,000 women live with thispreventable condition. Ms. Nakigozi also experienced fistula for three years, andin 2016, she founded Women Smiles Uganda to help women suffering from fistula,and developed an application program, Robinah, that allows patients web
consultation on fistula by AI. Users can use Robinah on the web at 2 US dollars
a month. Patients can ask Robinah any questions including about their condition
and things they want to know about fistula, and Robinah will answer questions,and give advice and information depending on the situations. When Robinah
discovers a need to be checked by a professional, she will advise the patient to
go to a partner laboratory. The check up results will then be transferred via
Robinah. She can also recommend hospitals for surgery if necessary. More than
10,000 women have been using Robinah, and 750 women have been helped tofind hospitals for treatment and surgery. Women Smiles Uganda has 11 women
staff, and they are also helping unemployed women become independent by
providing them with vegetable garden kits that they can grow and sell. The profit
in 2019 is expected to be 66,000 US dollars. They are planning to expand theiractivities from Africa to the world.
The Takeda Foundation highly evaluates Ms. Lilian Nakigozi’s efforts to help
fistula patients who otherwise have no place to consult about their condition, andto help unemployed women become independent.
THE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Mr. Saeed A. Alfagieh, ANAMEHANI LLC Founder and CEO, Yemen
7

November 6, 2019
“ANAMEHANI”
Unemployment in the Middle East, especially in conflict areas, has been
constantly increasing, and it is becoming more and more difficult for skilledworkers to find proper jobs. Unemployment has now become a serious social
problem in conflict areas. ANAMEHANI, which means “I am a professional” inArabic, is an online platform that helps skilled and trustworthy workers find jobs
with decent payment. It will find various handy jobs including setting up solar
panels at homes and companies, electric wiring, and carpentry. Mr. Alfagieh
founded ANAMEHANI in 2015, and has been providing online services to findhandy jobs for skilled workers in conflict areas. Workers can access the platformfrom smartphones as well as personal computers. Since there are versatile
workers in the area, ANAMEHANI offers various services including subscription
credits, premium accounts for suppliers, and dedicated platforms for NGOs andcompanies. Their comparative strength includes focusing on everyday handy
jobs, using pre-existing social networks, strong teamwork and a famed advisoryboard, strong computing systems that can handle huge volumes of transactions,and offering a reasonable fee for its services. They have expanded their service
to Egypt, and moved their headquarters from Yemen to Cairo in November, 2018.
They have found handy jobs for 125,000 workers with sales of 601,236 US dollars
and a profit of 356,474 US dollars in 2018. The sales for 2016 and 2017 were
164,000 and 288,400 US dollars respectively.
The Takeda Foundation highly acknowledges Mr. Saeed Alfagieh’s contribution
to the local economy in conflict areas by helping skilled workers find jobs, improvetheir skills, and increase their income.

8