Tongayi Choto
Over the years, the AfriBlocks platform has connected companies and individuals from all over the globe with freelancers who bring ideas to fruition. Our freelancers’ exceptional prowess in their fields has turned customers into returning clients. This month, as we #ChooseToChallenge and celebrate women in business, we are focusing on some of the extraordinary women in the AfriBlocks family. In addition to shining a light on deserving women, we also reveal how the relationship is helping them reach their targets and grow their businesses.
A brilliant example is Vanessa Da Costa and Chilombo Global Career Services, a career development platform for both students and professionals specializing in public health. As a global health data analyst who has been working at the intersection of global health and career services since 2015, Vanessa founded Chilombo Global Career Services in January 2019. The mission is to help students and professionals worldwide achieve their professional career goals through four avenues: quality services, free resources, skill-based courses,and paid work experiences.
Chilombo Global Career Services offers services ranging from resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profile revamps to interview preparation and consultation calls, among others. They aim to be the premier career development platform for students and professionals, as well as the leading data consulting platform in the public health, global health, and education space.
Vanessa and a friend/fellow business owner, Chi-Chi, first learned about AfriBlocks through Akudzwe, an AfriBlocks freelancer they had booked for an event hosted in Pretoria, South Africa in 2019. A few weeks after the event, Akudzwe reached out and mentioned her collaboration with AfriBlocks. Intrigued by the platform, Vanessa decided to reach out and connect with AfriBlocks CEO Tongayi to discuss collaborating on projects and utilizing the platform to help fulfill some of Chilombo’s needs. For their first collaboration, Vanessa served as a training consultant and host for the African Freelancer Series, a free virtual training series for aspiring and current AfriBlocks freelancers, which is still available online.
Vanessa sees AfriBlocks as her go-to platform for website development, logo animation, and video creation. The team revamped her website in 2020, really improving the overall layout and quality of her platform. “What I appreciate the most about AfriBlocks is that their freelancers are great to work with, responsive to feedback, and are able to use their creativity to take your ideas and vision to the next level,” she said. Aside from her websites, one of Vanessa’s favorite projects is a one-minute promotional video developed by AfriBlocks, which has served as an extremely valuable tool as one of the first things her website visitors see.
As she works towards becoming a full-time consultant and entrepreneur in the next three years, Vanessa recently received some amazing advice from a mentor she believes is relevant to all freelancers: “Continue working on building your personal brand! Continue to highlight your niche, skillset, and offerings whether it is through LinkedIn, a personal website, social media, email newsletter, and, of course, your AfriBlocks profile. When people hear your name or your business’ name, what do you want them to think of? Taking this approach can help you become that exceptional person in your industry.”
It has not always been easy running the business. Balancing the professional and personal aspects of her life and time management are the biggest challenges she has faced. A few months into trying to fulfill the requirements of her full-time job while running Chilombo Global Career Services at the same time, Vanessa realized that she needed to expand her team of internal contractors for certain tasks, but when it comes to creating and maintaining a quality website, AfriBlocks freelancers have been invaluable.
Delivering above and beyond a client’s expectations is one of the reasons why the freelancers on our platform continue to stand out. The AfriBlocks team is proud of the relationships that we have built with phenomenal women like Vanessa. We applaud her and look forward to working with more women like her as they move from strength to strength!
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