Empower South African Women Fighting Child Poverty

Our newest intern, Andiswa, shares a little bit about her experience as a CHOSA intern:

"The purpose of an internship is to develop real work experience, and so far I am having a great experience with CHOSA. As a CHOSA intern, I am able to explore my interests and gain opportunities to work with different communities, and people from different backgrounds. So far I have learned a lot of new things about how I can apply my knowledge in public relations to the nonprofit sector to really make a positive difference.

Being tasked with managing social media, I have learned how my reach can communicate CHOSA's work to broader audiences. It's been so cool to share the amazing work of CHOSA's partner organizations with CHOSA donors and supporters around the world. It's exciting to support our partner organizations in finding a voice for themselves beyond their local community that they work. Public relations is all about connecting people and stories, and being able to connect people to stories that are making impactful changes in the lives of children makes studying towards a career in this industry incredibly fulfilling.

So far my experience at CHOSA has helped me to improve my writing skills, and gain more independence and pride in my work. I also love being able to feel so incorporated into the rest of the CHOSA staff, they have really made me feel at home in the short time I have been with them.

As you continue to receive updates from the field with all of the great work CHOSA is doing to support and uplift community based organizations and projects that work to improve the lives of children in South Africa, please enjoy the content I'm working to help curate! Together, as we connect people, places, and projects, we collectively are doing our part to make the world a better place for all who live in it, especially the smallest amongst us."

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CHOSA thanks Andiswa for her hard work helping us grow, expand, and learn more ourselves about how we can best communicate the work CHOSA does to wider audiences, including you. Thank you for allowing us to not only improve the lives of the children of South Africa through supporting CHOSA, but also by being able to be an organization that seeks to support, guide, and educate the next generation of non-profit leaders, like Andiswa.

Over December and January in South Africa, it is summer holiday. Graduations happen, schools close, people go on vacation, and the summer sunshine is shining bright. Things are no different for our partner organizations; it’s a time for them to send children from preschool onto primary school, allow time for home visits with biological family, prepare to welcome new children in the upcoming school year, and celebrate all they have accomplished throughout the year improving children’s lives.

One of our partner organizations, Abaphumeleli Home of Safety, had a great time over the holiday thanks to the return of their van, which had been undergoing repairs for nearly half of the year. With the van back in action, they were able to take the children remaining at the home for the holidays to the local beach. It was a great day out, which gave some of the youngest members of the home their first chance to touch their toes in the Indian Ocean.

The end of 2018 also brought exciting news from our partner organization, the Thope Foundation, who in January 2018 launched their iSTEAM (innovation, science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) primary school, Molo Mhlaba (which means Hello World in isiXhosa). Wrapping up the year with the first kindergarten graduating class, who are now moving on in the school to Grade 1, the announcement was also made that Molo Mhlaba will now be expanding into a high school. CHOSA is so excited about their mission to transform local education opportunities for girls growing up in South Africa’s townships, and we cannot wait to see where this growth and movement will propel them!

The staff at CHOSA also had a great holiday season, joining together with projects in our last networking event of the year to reflect, evaluate and celebrate the hard work our partner organizations have put in throughout 2018 to make it a successful year for the children we work with. It’s always great getting to have all of our partners together in one place during our quarterly networking and capacity building events; collectively, they are changing the township landscape for children. We look forward to all that is ahead for CHOSA and our partner organizations as we have now hit the ground running in 2019.