Thandeka uses her special powers to help others
In early 2016, local musician PJ Powers became the global ambassador for the mentorship programme of Johannesburg-based nonprofit organisation Khulisa Social Solutions and was horrified by the extent of her ignorance.
Launched in 1997 by LesleyAnn van Selm with an innovative programme for prisoners, Khulisa has expanded to include social upliftment across a variety of programmes including micro enterprises, innovation and education in SA’s underprivileged communities.
In 2017 Khulisa touched the lives of about 650,00 people from all walks of life.
“My grandmother was a communist and made me very aware of the fact that I was privileged to the point of guilt,” Powers says. “Social justice is something I have been doing all my life. I get involved because I have to; I’m that kind of person.”
One of Powers’s first outings with Khulisa took her to Freedom Square in Kliptown, Soweto. She was horrified by the contrast between the Freedom Charter Monument and the shacks nearby.
“Over the railway [line] to the shacks there are open [electricity] wires and a lot of children die crossing there to go to school,” she says. “I am a Soweto girl. I was given the name Thandeka in May 1982. Soweto has been my stomping ground for 36 years.
“To go into Soweto and be faced with this — I felt irritated with myself that I did not know about it,” Powers says.
Powers says joining Khulisa was a step in the right direction.
“I am like a cauldron dying to boil over. I really want to make social justice work. And my goal is to get involved with social justice at a Unicef level,” she says.
Khulisa has made it easy for people from all over the world to get involved in mentorship. A custom-built state-of-the-art Khulisa Information Management System matches mentors and mentees through measuring pivotal talents.
After they are matched, the mentor provides three or four hours a month of their time to young people. Powers has two mentees who talk to her about their issues and problems.
“I am a sounding board and I speak to them every day. The ability to strategise of one young girl, Priscilla, way outnumbers a whole lot of people I have worked with in my life. I have helped her believe in herself.
“All you need is a little empathy and care. And it makes me feel so good. When you understand what another person is going through, get to know them and help them, then you get more back than you give out.”
Walk in My Shoes, a campaign Khulisa launched last week in partnership with the Thuli Madonsela Foundation, is an invitation for underprivileged people to tell their stories. Powers believes the extraordinary resilience of people across Africa can be channelled into personal power. The opening line of the Walk in My Shoes song — sung by Powers — goes: “Hey there, I would like to introduce myself to you.”
It can be sung by a child to parents, an old woman to a group of people, or a prisoner to friends. “Nelson Mandela once said to me that music is like a velvet glove — it enables you to express your feelings of pain, politics and protest. I am appealing to the empathy in people,” says Powers.
Van Selm says people in SA need to be taught about empathy, caring and listening to one another. “If we have context, we will be less judgmental. If the authentic stories and voices of those who do not have can be shared with those who have no idea about the realities of ‘the other side’ and ‘the silent invisible majority’, the humanity embedded in us all will come to the fore.”
Powers’s international reputation is expected to help in signing up more mentors. An international media campaign will attempt to link the song with expatriates, giving them an opportunity to give back.
“When I am overseas with expats, they are all South Africans first. They are mostly proudly South African and when they come to my shows, they end up in tears, because some of them are almost in exile,” Power says.
“They can be a huge asset to us. You need to have big kahunas to live in this country, you need tenaciousness. And some people don’t have that but still want to make a contribution,” she says.
Powers believes Walk in My Shoes, which will be accompanied by a music video featuring Madonesla, will become a social justice anthem.
Publisher John Fishlock says the song will be distributed digitally through all platforms for streaming and download worldwide. Marginalised South Africans will receive 20% of the profit of the song.
● Walk in My Shoes will be launched at the Human Rights Festival on Constitution Hill on March 23.