Economic Growth South Africa Project #43466

Expand Black South African Leadership & Enterprise

by The Emerge Project SA

Expand Black South African Leadership & Enterprise

Project Report | Jul 12, 2020
Keeping Up During Lockdown

By Yuniya Khan | Project Director

Dear TEP Friends,

I think it’s safe to say that this year has not turned out the way any of us planned or hoped for.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the entire world to an abrupt standstill, and just like that, everything changed. And for The Emerge Project, this has meant a lot of things. South Africa has closed its borders to international travelers, which means that for our project director, Yuniya, currently in the US, travel to South Africa is off the table, likely for the rest of 2020. This means that, at least for the time being, our capacity to create new stories and content will remain limited while we reassess and reconfigure and determine the best way forward amidst lockdowns and border closures.

In the meantime, though, we will continue to build on the work of the black leaders and entrepreneurs whose stories we’ve captured and shared, who continue to do their best to make a difference in their community. In June we featured the work of Kgomotso Khosa of Raising Giants Organization (RGO). Kgomotso and her team have been working for the last 12 years to mentor and shape Black youth into the giants they are. RGO has helped dozens of young people recognize and embrace their strengths, overcome challenges and sometimes overwhelming odds, and embrace their role as valuable members of society.

In light of all the protests happening in the US and around the world in support of racial justice and equity, we believe the work of The Emerge Project is even more crucial. People like Kgomotso and the leaders we feature exist in every country, in every society. Many of them operate with minimal resources, and expend a great deal of time and energy to keep their initiatives going. Black leadership is crucial in building up the health and safety of our societies, and we need to find intentional and effective ways to support their work and expand their impact. We invite you to reach out to us if you have specific ideas for collaboration and partnership in building these leaders up.

We wish you health, safety and peace of mind during this season!

With gratitude,

The TEP Team

Links:

Kgomotso's story

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Mar 12, 2020
Charging into the new year!

By Yuniya Khan | Project Director

Vika Mjoka

Dear TEP Friends and Supporters,

Thank you again for choosing to support us in our efforts to raise up black leadership and enterprise in South Africa and Brazil.

The year has gotten off to a busy start for us, as we’ve been working to put all the pieces together for our campaign to spread the word about our black leaders! We have been consulting with our social media colleague, Jonathan Damilola Oladeji, to set up the structures, templates and designs that will allow us to distribute our content in an attractive and compelling package. Our goal is to be ready to distribute these monthly themed materials by April, and then work on building up our subscriber and follower base throughout the rest of the year.

In the meantime, we have been developing our content for our website and social media pages. In January our theme was “Black women entrepreneurs making a difference through culinary arts.” We featured our video of Tondi Nengwenda, who left her IT career behind to open her own cake shop, along with articles and mini-videos sharing various aspects of her story. We also posted a video and article we produced, featuring Sandra Leite, a restaurant owner in Salvador, Brazil. In addition, we shared other articles and videos related to black women in South Africa who are using their culinary skills to drive growth.

February’s theme was “Black boys and men generating real change,” and featured Vika Mjoka, youth leader extraordinaire, who works with black high school students to build them up through art and expression. In particular, he works with a group of teen boys who started a book club called the Boys Do Read Success Club. Through this group, Vika is teaching these boys the value of reading, and helping them to recognize themselves as leaders and drivers in their community.

Part of our goal in launching these monthly themes is to generate more followers and subscribers, so that we can expand not only TEP’s reach, but also that of the leaders we feature. Our goal is to gain 3,000 followers/subscribers by the end of the year. We hope you will follow us via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or our website to learn more about these ordinary, outstanding individuals and the change they are generating through their activities.

Thank you again for your support. If you have any comments, ideas, or suggestions about any of our initiatives, we would love to hear them!

Please stay safe and healthy during this coronavirus pandemic!

Gratefully,

The TEP team

Vika and the boys

Tondi Nengwenda

Links:

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