Our Vision: Empowering children and youth to overcome community and global challenges.
Our Mission:
Africa Sinomusa Foundation, a community initiative, is a Non-Profit Organisation which makes a difference in the lives of children. We believe that every child has the right to experience happiness. Our programmes promote the welfare of children and youth and empower them to overcome challenges on both a community and global level.
The Team
Nomsa Mninzi – Founder
Founder & Christmas Project/Youth Project Co-ordinator – Khayelitsha
About Nomsa: An Ambassador for the Spice4life Women’s Network, Board Member at the Life Community Welfare Organisation, partner of the Langa Youth Tennis Club and a member of the Langa Youth Development Centre.
Email Nomsa
Bathulile Ntshingila – Youth Project Manager
(Langa)
Email Bathulile
Elizabeth Benninger – Youth Project Manager
(Lavender Hill)
Email Elizabeth
Sebastian Cooper – Webmaster
Email Sebastian
History
“I was born and grew up in Langa (Sunshine) the oldest township in Cape Town.I have a great passion for community work since my teenage years, as making a difference in the lives of those who are living ing poverty especially children is my main priority in life.I discovered my love for charity work 13 years ago when I was a Sunday school teacher at our community church in Khayelitsha. Seeing some of our Sunday school children not being able to concentrate in class due starvation got me and my co-Sunday school teachers so sad and challenged, since then we committed ourselves in doing something about the situation and that’s when we started a little feeding project at our local church.
Our Pastor and the entire congregation supported the initiative and through that little feeding project, a community organisation was established (Life Community Welfare).Today I am proud to say the organisation has managed to feed thousands and thousands of hungry children and adults in the most poverty stricken communities of Cape Town through our soup/feeding project and youths has been empowered as well in our bid to fight crime,drugs and teenage pregnancy.”
Out of the Life Community Welfare Organisation, Africa Sinomusa Foundation was established (October 2009) as one of it’s wings which will fully focus on Youth Empowerment programmes and children’s events throughout South Africa (Christmas parties, Educational programmes,Camps, Exchange programmes etc).
- Nomsa Mninzi
Objectives
The organisation’s main objectives are:
- To provide community services to all the poverty stricken communities by creating job opportunities for youth through our educational, campaigns/ children’s events in our bid to fight high crime, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy.
- To collaborate with other organizations that mainly deal with community development, educational programs, HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.
Theory For Social Change
The Africa Sinomusa Foundation strives for social change through its community empowerment. The services we provide for the children and youth enable them to take control of their lives, to have vision, and to create ways to make their community and world a better place.
Due to the economical situation of our country, where we have a high rate of poverty and unemployment, we are faced with scars of poverty i.e. Women and children have been abused and children are the ones who suffer the most, they have been abused and abandoned.
We aim to create opportunities for the unemployed youth in our communities by initiating programs such as (Youth With Mission/Youth In Action) with the purpose of starting government initiatives like Vukuzenzele and then employ them to work at our offices, children’s events/campaigns, etc minimizing high crime rate and teenage pregnancy due to educational challenges. The Africa Sinomusa Foundation will be making a difference in the lives of many who lack opportunities to further themselves.
The Ilizwi Young Women’s Empowerment Program seeks to provide a program that young women have a sense of ownership over. We seek to recruit and work with young women who want to be a part of Ilizwi. Empowerment is something that can be revealed from within each young woman, not something we can give them. Our workshops allow young women to discover the power they have within themselves and how to display it in a respectful way.
The Youth Cultural Connection Project empowers youth from the United States and South Africa to work towards ending existing racial and cultural barriers. In both countries policies and laws are now in place which give all citizens equal rights. This opens up opportunities for the youth to make decisions for themselves about their lives and future. In order to make this possible, the youth must be given the opportunity to have a vision. The youth participants reside in the predominantly “black” community called Masiphumelele, the “coloured” community of Lavender Hill, and the area of Retreat, which has become home to many refugee youths from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.
In the United States program coordinators are working in Milwaukee and Cleveland, cities consisting of many racially and culturally segregated areas, connecting the youth from various community centers including NeuLife Community Center, the Refugee Center, Boys Hope Girls Hope, and St. Francis Xavier School. The majority of the youth participants are living in communities faced with many challenges such as inadequate living conditions, gang violence, xenophobic attacks, and the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS.
The project provides an outlet for these children to express themselves, to value themselves as unique individuals, and to learn about the exciting qualities and similarities of other youth by connecting with children outside of their community, including the youth from the United States.