Local organisation aims to assist young people

DIVINE Favour Mentorship and Coaching Initiative aims to contribute to the development and improvement of young people’s lives, with a special focus on those from underprivileged families.

The organisation has partnered with Kaalfontein Secondary School in Tembisa to work with the learners in an effort to help develop them.

Founding member and managing director of the initiative, Patience Baloyi, said they rolled out a programme at the school which would cover many facets of the learners’ lives.

“The initiative gives academic support to the learners through extra classes on Saturdays in mainstream subjects, but it does not end there. The youngsters at the school will also be empowered with life skills training, mentoring and coaching. Talent search and management in sports and other fields such as the arts will also feature prominently in the programme,” she explained.

The initiative was launched at the school in April.

At the event, Baloyi urged the learners to take the opportunity for development being granted through the initiative very seriously.

“Your future is in your hands and therefore you need to use whatever is being granted to ensure success in your life. We cannot all choose our backgrounds and the circumstances we are born into, but as we grow we have plenty of opportunities that help us turn our lives around for the better,” she encouraged them.

She labelled the day as a turning point for the learners.

Among the team of volunteers who will be tutoring the learners is Precious Senamela who is a BA Industrial Psychology and HR student.

Senamela is excited about the opportunity to impart knowledge to the young learners.

“From a very young age, I’ve always loved giving advice to people, even when I didn’t have much wisdom as a child, I guess I’ve always wanted to make people feel better. That is why I chose to study psychology,” she said.

Primrose Chigogo is a Grade Nine learner at the school and is looking forward to being assisted through the project.

“At the moment I struggle with maths and accounting and I need all the help I can get,” she said.

Her fellow learner Sinothando Shezi who is in Grade Eight said she had difficulty with EMS and technology and couldn’t wait for all the help that was coming her way.

Shezi comes from a household headed by her grandmother who can’t help her much with her academic studies.

Her granny is raising nine grandchildren with her meagre income.

Grade Nine pupil Reneilwe Maputla dreams of becoming a civil engineer and said she was in desperate need of assistance with her physics and maths studies.

She lives with her five siblings and parents and admitted things weren’t always easy as her parents struggled to make ends meet.

Volunteer Thabi Rakgotho has a passion to assist girl learners and will be doing a lot of life skills training. In her address to the learners she urged them to be the main drivers of their destinies.

“A positive mind is essential to help you achieve anything you want. Set targets for your studies, make positive declarations every day and break old habits that aren’t going to assist you in pursuit of a bright future,” she urged them.

A teacher at the school Seipati Ramango said she appreciated the initiative as she believed it would help beef up learning and improve academic performance,

“We are always limited by time with the everyday lessons and most learners don’t have academic support at home, and so having these tutors will help the learners.”

Driven by her passion for the lives of the young people Baloyi added that as teen life coaches they were the cheerleaders, allies, and trusted advisors for the students.

“We will create a safe space for the learners to share their successes, confront their challenges, and develop tools to create a life of confidence, success and happiness. Teens will make better decisions in all areas of life by learning how to love themselves and becoming empowered with self-confidence. Together, we will create an action plan that will empower them to discover their capabilities and accomplish their goals.”

Baloyi added that their aim was also to try as best as they could to address some of the material needs of the learners where possible, with help from donors.

“We will be providing meals to the learners every Saturday when they attend classes. As a non-profit organisation, our projects are sustained by donations, so we will appreciate all forms of assistance from anyone who can assist us, in order to meet the needs of the learners.”