Initiatives making a difference for the youth

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This year marks the 44th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, known today as Youth Day. The 16th of June 1976 was the beginning of a movement that saw scores of young people take to the streets in a bid to challenge the unjust systems of the time. Now as we commemorate this significant day, what better way to do so than doing our bit towards uplifting the youth of our country?

Here are some of the youth-focused initiatives that you can take part in to help empower our young people.

Feenix

Feenix is an online fundraising platform that connects students with funders who are passionate about supporting the future of South Africa. As the only NPO initiative in the country that pays for the historical debt of students, Feenix aims to achieve debt-free graduation for students.

DG Murray Trust

The DG Murray Trust empowers the future of South Africa by focusing on a range of opportunities for young people. These include giving every child the benefit of early childhood development, stopping nutritional stunting among children under the age of two, creating job opportunities for the youth, and many other ways.

mothers2mothers

This organisation has made a big impact on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and continues to drive change in reproductive, maternal, and child health. mother2mothers’ services also include early childhood development and youth programmes.

Foundation for Community Work

With the aim to make early childhood development accessible to all children in rural areas across South Africa, FCW promotes the holistic development of children within the context of their families and communities.

South African Children’s Institute

The UCT’s Children’s Institute aims to report on and monitor the situation of children in South Africa, with a keen focus on the realisation of their rights.

Bright Kid Foundation

This early childhood development centre delivers edutainers to selected preschools in rural areas and informal settlements. Bright Kid Foundation also provides learning facilities and equipment such as instant classrooms, books, and educational toys.

Junior Achievement South Africa                                                                                               

With technology, robotics, and programming as its focus areas, JA South Africa provides entrepreneurial and life skills to youth in both rural and urban environments.

Columbia Leadership

Columbia Leadership offers a values-based leadership development programme at the secondary school level, to create environments more conducive to teaching and learning and to unleash the potential of young people.

Artisan Training Institute

The Artisan Training Institute is making an immense difference in the technical training environment by providing engineering skills to young people in the country.

Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme 

With the aim of fast-tracking South Africa’s skills production, ISFAP funds higher education costs for students studying towards a career in fields such as medicine, engineering, accounting, and others.

Ntataise Lowveld

Ntataise Lowveld is a non-profit organisation that operates in the Mpumalanga Lowveld area, with a focus on early childhood development. The organisation provides training and support for community early childhood development practitioners to obtain an NQF level 4 Training Certificate. A total of 98 youth practitioners were trained in 2019.

Harambe

With the goal to assist youth from disadvantaged backgrounds to get the skills required to increase chances of employment, Harambe is a non-profit organisation that has placed young people in over 110 000 in jobs.

Allan Gray Orbis Foundation

Through a wealth of programmes, this foundation is committed to cultivating an association of high-impact entrepreneurs to help change the unemployment rate in South Africa.

BRIDGE

Using learning groups, collaboration with other organisations, and by creating and sharing knowledge resources, BRIDGE focuses on improving the quality of teaching and learning. With five focus areas in education, BRIDGE creates common purpose, peer support, and trust.

Ububele

Founded in 2000, Ububele focuses on improving the emotional development and wellbeing of children under 7 years. The organisation provides a range of services to infants in their first 1000 days as well as to their caregivers. Ububele also provides training to health care and social service professionals to contribute to the educational outcomes of children in their earliest years.

IkamvaYouth

Due to the inequality of educational opportunities in South Africa, IkamvaYouth focuses on creating a safe space for students to learn after class. After school classes include a range of services with a core focus on tutoring.

Do you know of any change-making organisations that we all need to know about? Let us know in the comments below.