Finder in the spotlight: Rhiza

On a rainy day, we meet Joost Meulenberg and Robbert Popken from the organization Rhiza in their office on the eleventh floor of a shared office building in Amstelveen. While the planes fly closely overhead, they tell us about their work for this passionate organization.

Real impact

Early Finder Rhiza focuses on the most vulnerable population in the townships of South Africa. With various projects in the areas of education, agriculture, vocational training, healthcare and entrepreneurship, the organization fights extreme poverty. Rhiza is a South African foundation; the Dutch branch focuses mainly on fundraising. Characteristic of Rhiza, which means 'roots' in Greek, is the focus on self-reliance and sustainable permanence of the projects. 'Although Rhiza is a foundation, we strive to actually compete with the rest of the market with our projects. Only in this way do you force yourself to set the bar high and thus make real impact', says Joost, coordinator of Rhiza Netherlands.

His brother Alef founded Rhiza in 2010 and lives in South Africa. He is mainly involved in local fundraising and related strategy. The daily management and direction of Rhiza is in the hands of a South African team. Robbert and Joost are responsible for fundraising and the Dutch foundation from the Netherlands.

Sustainable health clinics

Robbert previously worked in Dutch healthcare and has a lot of interest and affinity with this theme. He talks about Rhiza's projects: 'Ideally, we want our projects to be completely self-sufficient. For example, nurses are co-owners of the clinics that are financially supported by Rhiza in the start-up phase. In this way, not only is healthcare improved, but female entrepreneurship is also stimulated. Moreover, the care is not free, because this is often distrusted by the local population. Patients pay a small amount for the care, making the clinics financially sustainable as well.' It is an approach that results not only in prosperity, but also in greater community involvement.

Innovative IT projects

This innovative concept also applies to IT projects where the focus is on creating employment and a sustainable business model. Rhiza believes in stimulating entrepreneurship as a powerful means to strengthen local communities. Joost explains: 'We try not to put the social element in the foreground, but we focus on delivering professional high-quality services, for example in the field of Search Engine Optimization, to paying customers. Local young people learn IT skills and receive a market-conform salary. We treat people as employees rather than students or those in need. The services we deliver to paying parties are qualitatively comparable to those of the rest of the market. That has to be. This also means that we expect people to be on time, act professionally and be able to collaborate. In short: we hold employees accountable for their work. Of course, you have to take into account the social and cultural differences and norms. We are also there to inform foreign companies about the local context of the company they hire.