Africa Sinomusa Foundation has a variety of programmes which provide opportunities for young people to strengthen themselves, their communities, and the world. These include:
- Educational Needs Fund
- The Christmas Project
- Youth Events
- Youth Cultural Connection Project
- Ilizwi Young Women’s Empowerment Program
Click the links above for more info.
1. Educational Needs Fund
The educational needs fund looks holistically at the needs of the children in our communities. Through our fund raisers and campaigns, the organisation helps to meet the children’s needs through providing them with items such as food, school uniforms, transportation, shoes, and clothing.
2. The Christmas Project
The Christmas project was initiated 7 years ago under the auspices of Life Community Welfare and the idea was to reach out to less privileged children in the townships, create a sense of self worth and to provide a wonderful experience for them during Christmas time.
The colourful programme makes use of dance, music & drumming to impart knowledge and skills to young people on issues such as basic human rights education, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, drugs and substance abuse, crime prevention and road safety information, wild fire prevention and management, access to government’s comprehensive social security system, household food security projects, and environmental conservation.
3. Youth Events
The Youth Events strive to create a platform where the youth from different backgrounds can have a space to engage with and inform each other about their different experiences and cultures. This takes place through camps, field trips, and conferences which create a dialogue amongst the youth at local venues.
While this interaction will most likely only take place in-person on the local level, it does allow for future exchange programs in which youth from South Africa visit youth from the United States and vice versa.
4. Youth Cultural Connection Project
Mission: The Youth Cultural Connection Project promotes a peaceful coexistence of all humanity. This is accomplished through educational and creative programming with a specific emphasis on cultural sharing.
The project connects youth from a diverse array of communities and backgrounds with one another. The project creates a platform where youth from different racial groups, backgrounds, and cultures have the opportunity to learn about each other and share their different experiences with one another.
In turn, a shared understanding of each other’s culture reduces the ignorance which has produced hatred and misunderstandings. Through the sharing of stories, letters, poems, music, and photography, the youth will have the opportunity to learn about the common interests and qualities which connect them as youth, new cultural traditions which make them unique, and most importantly the ways in which there exists the shared life experience of being human.
5. Ilizwi Young Women’s Empowerment Program
The mission of Ilizwi Young Women’s Empowerment Programme is to instill a culture of confidence, self-love, and respect in the young women of Langa through innovative workshops that allow their voices to be heard in a judgment-free environment.
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.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Funding
In our bid to help and empower, we have collaborated with different communities, charities/orphanage homes and churches who are working with these children, volunteering our services and helping out with whatsoever assistance needed throughout the year ( i.e. feeding, educational programs and camps) for children in areas like Langa, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Elsies River, Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha and surrounding areas. By having a solid relationship with these charities, children’s homes and pre-schools, we have managed to create a database of the Christmas Project beneficiaries which can be provided at your request.
Africa Sinomusa and Life Community Welfare have hosted successful Childrens’ Christmas parties with the following attendance:
- 2002, 2003 and 2004: 400 children
- 2005: 700 children
- 2006: 1,000 children
- 2007: 1,500 children
- 2008: 1,500 children
The Christmas project has been made possible by the loyal support of our partners like corporate companies, government structures, churches and friends. In 2007 & 2008 the number multiplied tremendously and this has forced us to consider making the Christmas Project independent and that is how the Africa Sinomusa Foundation was established in order to focus specifically on annual Christmas events and as well as to educational programs for underprivileged children and youth throughout South Africa.
150 youth have successfully completed their cultural portfolios for the Youth Cultural Connection Project. They have exchanged their portfolios with youth from other cultures and backgrounds at the YCCP Final Event. A book which contained copies of all the South African portfolios was brought back to the United States and given to the participating schools and centers. Presentations were given at the schools and centers displaying the pictures taken by the South African youth. Multiple sets of letters have been exchanged through the pen pal project.
Ilizwi has been working with a group of fifteen young women since January of 2009. Through our surveys, the community participants choose the topics of the workshops which they feel are important in their community and life. Surveys are also distributed after the workshops to assess what knowledge has been gained and what we could improve.
In order to measure the organizational outcomes and successes in the future, daily sessions will continue to be documented, including the lesson plan for the day, the outcomes of the days activities, and ideas of what we could do better in the future. The portfolios created by the youth can be used to evaluate the improvement in the participants’ reading and writing skills, and the talent show and art exhibitions allow for the youth to showcase their new skills. We will also distribute surveys to the youth after the events to evaluate the event’s impact and for the youth’s suggestions to improve the events in the future.
The Africa Sinomusa Foundation values its relationships with members and organizations within the communities. We have collaborated with different communities, charities/orphanage homes and churches who are working with these children, volunteering our services and helping out with whatsoever assistance needed throughout the year ( i.e. feeding, educational programs and camps) for children in areas like Langa, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Elsies River, Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha and surrounding areas. The organization will continue to function in partnership with many existing youth development organizations and schools such as Africa Unite, The Desmond Tutu HIV foundation, RAPCAN, Masiphumelele Methodist Church, and the primary schools.
These organizations help to strengthen the project through donating its resources such as research, transportation, facilities, and volunteers.
RAPCAN (Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) is currently working in Lavender Hill with research on the existence of child abuse, advocating for the communities youth through their research publications and by providing positive parenting classes.
The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation is doing great work in Masiphumelele with their research of the prevalence of HIV amongst the youth in the community.
Africa Unite provides workshops in human rights training for communities throughout the Western Cape, including child and refugee rights.
Local sponsors will continue to help with the project through donations and discounts on supplies and food items. These include Fuji Film (discounting cameras and developing), Loaded Smoothies (donating beverages), Santos Football (Professional Soccer game tickets), Pick N’ Pay (donating food), and local hardware stores and garden centers which donate supplies for community projects. We have also gained support from the City of Cape Town in the form of educational materials, professional speakers, and funding for events.
Fund raising has also helped to provide funding for the Foundation’s expenses. In Cleveland the youth hosted a school dance where all of the profits will go to support a social for the South African youth. The participants from the United States also held a gift-wrapping fundraiser which they raised over $400 to assist towards the project’s art supplies and cameras. Volunteers in Milwaukee host weekly dinners, each generating around $100 of funding. Donations from individuals, Marquette University in Milwaukee, and St. Francis Xavier Parish in Medina, Ohio has also helped to support our work.
The foundation will continue to apply for grants, accept donations from private donors, and organize fund raisers throughout the year to assist with project expenses.
If you’d like to help Africa Sinomusa, click here to get involved.