Phakamani to visit S4S schools!

Phaka

Exciting news!!! The S4S team has selected Phakamani Ndlovu, a facilitator at Kwabazothini High School, in the Valley of 1000 hills to travel to Australia for the GOLD Speaking Tour. The selection process was heartbreaking for us. Over two weeks we interviewed seven GOLD facilitators from various implementing organizations. The applicants were truly inspiring to us. Each facilitator came from a different background and had a different story to tell. It was so hard for us to chose between facilitators, and even harder to call up unsuccessful applicants to tell them they were not going to Australia. I wish so much that we could have just sent all of them!

So our final choice was Phakamani (Phaka for short) and he is an amazing young person. Phaka is 21 years old and turns 22 on the 9^th of June – he will be in Australia for his birthday! Phaka finished high school in 2006 and has completed various courses since then, such as IT training, adult basic education, radio programming and sound engineering. Phaka has worked so hard to get to where he is today. His father abandoned his family when he was young. And while his mother has always supported the family, she had to move out of their family home to work in Durban as a domestic worker to earn money for the family.

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During their teen years, Phaka and his brothers lived by themselves. They were forced to grow up quickly to look after themselves at home and study hard at school despite their circumstances. Phaka told us that he and his brother were very helpful around the school grounds and often helped with cleaning the toilets. The school principal was so grateful for their help that he organised a bursary for them through the Hillcrest Advice Bureau. This allowed Phaka to complete grade 8 to 12 at school.

When I look at Phaka and his truly positive outlook on life, it is hard to believe that the troubled past he speaks of belongs to him. Phaka has so much compassion for others and is always wanting to give. When he finished high school, he became a caregiver for school age orphans and vulnerable children around the Valley of Thousand Hills through an organization called Valley Trust in Bothas Hill. This experience made him realize just how much he loved working with and supporting youth.

Phaka has been a GOLD facilitator for one and a half years now. He joined GOLD because he wanted to support young people in his community in tackling HIV/AIDS. He told us that since being involved in GOLD, he has seen big changes in his community’s attitude and behavior towards HIV/AIDS. Teenage pregnancy has dropped, use of protection and awareness of the issue has increased, and stigma is being challenged.

Just Chillin

Phaka aspires to be a motivational speaker for youth in South Africa. He dreams of working for his own organization which will be focused on youth development. Many young people he knows were not able to finish schools for various reasons including poverty and teen pregnancy. He hopes that his organization will be able to help these people and offer them the education they missed out on. Currently we are training and preparing Phaka for his trip to Australia. It is great fun working with him and learning more about him.

Phaka is extremely excited about his trip to Australia!  He is looking forward to working with young Australians, and learning about our culture. He tells us that through the speeches he will deliver, he hopes to “tear down the perceptions of poverty and show we can uplift youth through education.” We are also very excited for Phaka to travel to Australia, and for him to meet a whole bunch of school students and Oaktree volunteers! Check out the video below which is sure to get you pumped for the arrival of Phaka on Australian shores.