Expand the Impact of South African Black Leaders

Dear Friends and Supporters of TEP,

It’s hard to believe we’re already more than halfway through 2019. Thank you for continuing to support our efforts. 

For the past few months our team has been working hard to balance TEP with the demands of life. All of us work at full-time jobs, one of our team members recently became a father for the first time, and others are wrestling with major life decisions. As a result, our frequency of content production has decreased this year. But one thing that remains clear throughout is our commitment to the work of TEP, raising the profile and expanding the impact of black grassroots leaders in South Africa. 

Our team recently participated in the first of three training sessions around social media and content development. Led by Jonathan Damilola, the goal of these workshops is to develop the skills of our entire team in understanding how to prepare and leverage content across the digital world. This is crucial, as a core part of our mission is to spread the word of our black leaders as far and wide as possible. The team received this first workshop with great enthusiasm and gratitude, and we are looking forward to the next two sessions, which will take place over the next two to three months.

In keeping with our mission to raise the profile and impact of black leaders and communities, we are currently designing a pilot initiative to generate economic power in a small section of Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. With Project Tiger, as we have dubbed this pilot initiative, community members will put a small amount of funds into a pot every month for one year. The community will then decide how to use those funds in a way that benefits the whole. We have partnered with Semadi Ngwenya of The Hub Presents Alex, and Paul Maluleke of the Greater Alexandra Tourism and Heritage Association (both of whom have been featured in our TEP videos) in this endeavor. With their enthusiastic support and outreach, we have also identified the area and community where we will conduct this pilot. 

As we mentioned in our last project report, we also have in the works an international exchange program between South Africa and Brazil, bringing together black leaders at the grassroots level in both countries. We are looking to launch this program in 2020. In preparation for this, our project director will be traveling to Salvador, Brazil in November to begin laying the groundwork for this initiative. We are excited to help build a global network of black change agents both in Africa and around the world. 

We are also excited to continue producing our videos and multimedia content. With two videos already in the works from filming earlier this year, and additional planned shoots for later this year, we have a full slate of content celebrating the accomplishments of black leaders to share with you by the end of the year!