Inkwenkwezi Youth Development Sporting Foundation

We asked this Cause 3 Questions: >> Who are you and what do you do? >> Why did you get started? >> Tell us a story - a person you helped - that keeps you going...

Who are you and why did you get started?

Inkwenkwezi Youth Development Sporting Foundation IYDSF is a rural youth-led non-governmental, not-for-profit company that uses the power of sport to educate, inspire and mobilize at-risk youth in Ngqushwa local municipality, in the Eastern Cape - Peddie. The organization was formed by unemployed graduates in 2015 to give back to their communities and to gain practical workplace skills. Our mission is to mainstream young people in all spheres of society.

We use our sport programme as a vehicle to teach life skills. To promote healthy living among youth, and academic excellence. Our Foundation then assists young people in forging their future by helping them access training and employment opportunities. We provide promising students with bursary assistance and ongoing support. To combat crime through integrated, holistic youth development through sport.

What do you do?

Can you imagine an environment where children and youth are safe, healthy, empowered, optimistic, self-reliant? Where they have access to quality education and health care? Where they can have fun together? We use sports as a vehicle for learning and youth development for female and male youths. To facilitate holistic youth development, we offer and incorporate life skills and work readiness into our programmes.

Tell us a story - a person you helped - that keeps you going...

Siphikhaya is one of 4 siblings, raised in a single-parent household supported by a modest childcare grant. Like the majority of children growing up in Peddie, Siphikhaya and his siblings are up in poverty, with very few positive role models. At the age of 14, a barefoot Siphikhaya, joined an in-school soccer programme facilitated by IYDSF.

The programme provided him with more than just a pair of boots. A sense of belonging, a series of life skills sessions, and opportunities to give back to the community, moulded him into a well-rounded young person with clear goals and aspirations. As part of the IYDSF continuing education programme, Siphikhaya graduated with Degree in Agriculture from the University of Fort Hare. He was the first student to benefit from a bursary facilitated and supported by IYDSF in partnership with CATHSSETA. CATHSSETA allows IYDSF to manage the bursary by monitoring and supporting the student’s progress through university.

Siphikhaya was given academic targets to achieve each year. An IYDSF bursary officer, who would meet with him every month to check his progress and assess the challenges he was facing, and ensure that he had the support needed to succeed in his studies.