Youth Led Change
Posted / 30 September 2020
UBUMBANO started back in 2016, on the 2nd of November founded by Bonginkosi Lize. He saw a need in his community, some of the challenges were teenage pregnancy, families with no food, learners in schools struggling with uniform. He was motivation to start UBUMBANO after being part of the Columba Leadership Academy. When the organization started, they donated school clothes, partnering with Sibabalwe Mashesha and his organisation, Ambassadors of change. “We were able to collect school clothes and donate them to the struggling learners, we then moved to casual clothes and went on to develop more programmes” says Anaso Yantolo, Head of Media at UBUMBANO. Over the years they have developed four different programmes aimed at providing help to variety of people in society. The first is Masincedisane, a door to door clothing collecting drive meant to encourage communities to donate to the less fortunate and victims of fires as this is a big challenge in the Khayelitsha area. The second programme is called Learn To Give, where they help orphanage homes with clean and spending time with the kids. They have partnered with bertha Movie House to have the children taken to the movies every second Friday for entertainment. Bertha Movie House provides transportation and food for the children. The third programme is High Expectations where they give talks about what Grade 7s can expect in high school and share experiences that can help these teens better prepare for high school. The last one Masifundisane, where they teach Spelling bee and debate to teenagers aged 13 and upwards. Anaso says, “The aim is to teach them literature and to keep them off the streets as we do this during school holidays.” She says some of the key challenges they face are related to getting enough supplies like toiletries to cater for who need. “We are currently in the process of getting registered, we could not register over the years because most of us were not yet of age”, says Anaso. You can get in touch with them on their Facebook page, UBUMBANO. Well done leaders!