Changing young lives — 500,000 at a time
● When Thulisile Ngebusaya gave birth to her daughter three years ago, the unemployed 23-year-old worried about how she would take care of her offspring.
Her fears were realised when she was unable to afford to buy her child clothes and take her to a daycare centre. During this period she had to depend on a childcare social grant.
Last year, however, Ngebusaya’s life changed for the better when she became part of the Tshepo 1 Million programme, an initiative of Gauteng premier David Makhura. Tshepo 1 Million aims at empowering young people through job placement, skills training and entre preneurship development. Ngebusaya is one of 510,000 young people who have benefited from Tshepo and youth empowerment programmes associated with it.
Tshepo 1 Million has also partnered with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, which prepares young people to enter the workplace and be ready to engage positively in on-the-job training and development.
Harambee has partnered with more than 430 companies in all sectors including retail, hospitality, tourism, financial services, business services, information technology, logistics, manufacturing, mining and social/community services.
“I was involved in the bridging programme on youth solving youth problems which ran from October 2018 to January 2019,” said Ngebusaya.
“The programme was based on various subjects like teenage pregnancy, bad parenting, alcohol and drug abuse, among other things.”
She said the lessons she gave to the teenagers were important because she grew up without understanding the pitfalls of having sex at a young age. She took these lessons and shared them with the children she mentored.
“Many parents would advise that you should not play with boys and you’ll fall pregnant and they don’t explain how you could fall pregnant.
“I also taught the children not to fall for peer pressure and must not use drugs.
“And we also taught them how to generate income, pricing of goods and services, and customer service,” she said.
Ngebusaya, who completed her business management diploma in 2017, could not find a job until the Tshepo 1 Million programme job opportunity arose.
The programme ended in January but Ngebusaya is now able to sustain herself through the lessons she learnt from Tshepo and she has a small business selling washing powder and sandals.
In his state of the province address, Makhura said his administration had taken decisive steps to tackle the acute problem of youth unemployment by introducing Tshepo 1 Million as a programme to empower the youth with skills and open up opportunities for them in the economy. “Tshepo 1 Million has brought hope and revived enthusiasm among the youth of our province. The stories of young people who have benefited from this flagship programme are very inspiring and real,” said Makhura.
Prudence Mahlangu, a 23-year-old woman from Tembisa, registered on the Tshepo mobi-site for the We Think Code boot-camp course and now works at Telkom. Prudence said: “The course has made me view life in a very revolutionary way — that I can transform people’s lives through technology … how to step out of my comfort zone to build confidence and chase my dreams.”
Another beneficiary, Ashwil Graham, a 24-year-old from Eden Park, in Alberton, is currently working for Nedbank after getting a learnership opportunity through Tshepo 1 Million.
Graham said those seeking employment should constantly remain positive, always be open to opportunities and should “show up”.