If we don’t develop SA’s youth, we may not have a country one day, says NGO founder

From becoming the secretary of the SA Council of Churches to developing a mentorship hub to ensure young people have computer literacy skills by the time they reach university — are among Thembelani George Vazi’s achievements and many youth programmes which he runs.

The 43-year-old founded the Izwi Mentorship Hub, an NGO based in the small village of Indwe in Komani (formerly Queenstown) in 2019, after noticing a spike in school dropout rates and substance abuse among the youth.

“I was a pastor in that area and saw many things that needed awareness.

“So we started numerous programmes to assist the community, with most benefiting the youth because they struggle the most to deal with challenges.

“Our main focus is on school-based social ills such as alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, as well as the increasing dropout rate, because most of the children here come from underprivileged homes.”

He said it was heartbreaking to see young people with dreams and goals facing barriers due to dire financial constraints, which led to them becoming frustrated and discouraged.

Having no control over their situation often led to them becoming idle or involved in destructive behaviours.

Vazi said the department of education had highlighted the hub’s National Inclusive School Safety Programme, also known as the change maker programme, which was intended to contribute to maximising school pupils’ capacity to learn certain techniques while dealing with difficulties at school.

“In addition, we are involved in teaching children digital literacy because we’ve discovered some children leave high school having never used a computer, and this becomes a problem when they get to university.

“We are doing this programme on a small scale; we want to make sure that even though the pupils are from a small rural area they are exposed to the digital world.”

The centre is also involved in a food security initiative as most local people are unemployed.

One of the programmes is a back-to-school initiative which employs counsellors to identify pupils who are battling. They then converse about the general challenges the children face.

“So we guide them. At times we invite experts, such as psychologists and social workers, and also children that are rehabilitated from drug abuse, to come and motivate the children.

“In a nutshell, we are involved in developing a child, because what we have observed is that if we cannot develop a child at this age, we might not have a country tomorrow.”

He said the ultimate goal was to prevent children from dropping out of school, and if they did, to get them to go back.

“We cannot say we have accomplished all our goals, but we do see a difference.

“If you inquire about the number of pupils who are going to school drunk since 2022, it is evident that the numbers have dropped significantly because children are responding to the programme.”

Vazi said he hoped the NGO would eventually cover the entire Chris Hani region, and possibly extend across the province in future.

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