Youth initiative successfully facilitated by youngsters
Regardless of being affected by the pandemic, the Rosa team facilitated the Rosa Breakfast that aimed to encourage the community during this strenuous time.
\Reach Out South Africa (Rosa) seeks to assist disadvantaged youngers in the Thembisan community to enjoy employment opportunities and apply to higher institutions of learning.
Pheta Lamola and Malwandla Nkuna, co-founders of Rosa, implemented their initiative with only R12 of data, which they borrowed from a friend.
The Ivory Park Extension Two residents came up with the idea of Rosa in 2020 after Pheta’s niece was struggling to apply to tertiary institutions.
“We started our initiative as a way of helping young people from our community. We now have students from African countries such as Zimbabwe requesting to enrol into South African institutions using our system,” Pheta said.
Rosa has recently launched the #PeopleBeforeProfit initiative, where they donated 80 per cent of their profit to the Ivory Park Ext two community.
According to the co-founders, the initiative aimed to challenge recently developed brands from the townships to reinvest in their communities.
“The reason behind the #PeopleBeforeProfit initiative was to show big brands that giving back to the community is essential, especially during the pandemic since community members are struggling to make ends meet. So we challenged them to pay attention to the communities within their surroundings.”
Regardless of being affected by the pandemic, the Rosa team facilitated the Rosa Breakfast that aimed to encourage the community during this strenuous time.
“The interactions we had during the Rosa breakfast led us to implementing a volunteer programme that had community members offer a helping hand to those in need. We had four volunteers who helped us reach a successful day of giving the little we have the community.”
In September, Rosa is planning to hold a colour run as a part of encouraging the community about fitness and to share meals with Tumelo Home for the mentally handicapped.
“We want to paint our community in bright colours, as we are a rainbow nation.”
Rosa hopes to help reduce poverty and bring forth opportunities that young people from townships are struggling to attain.
“We now focus on tailor-made interventions for job preparedness, while placing a focus on scholarship provision for youth out of school to increase their thirst to reach institutions with more motivation,” Pheta concluded.
