By Yuniya Khan | Project Director
Happy New Year, TEP Friends and Family! 2020 has gotten off to a rocky start globally; we hope in your neck of the woods all is as well as it can be.
The last three months have been busy for us. We published our latest video, which is about a group of ordinary black South Africans who mobilized hundreds of people to donate goods for the people affected by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique last March. Not only did they collect tons and tons of food, clothing, and toiletries, they also organized about a dozen volunteers to travel overland to deliver the donations right to the people of Beira, Mozambique—one of the most affected areas in the country. Calling themselves the Midnight Train to Beira, people drove their own cars, as well as a leased truck, all laden down with volunteers and donated goods. They drove the more than 2,000km across the border to Beira, Mozambique not once, but twice.
Our project director, Yuniya, traveled to Salvador, Brazil in November to strengthen our relationships there, check out the new and innovative initiatives springing up among the black population, and begin organizing for an exchange program we are hoping to launch this year. One of our program partners, Vale do Dendê, is an accelerator program geared toward young black entrepreneurs who have been traditionally marginalized. In its two years of existence, this program has already gained national recognition and helped launch the business ideas of dozens of entrepreneurs who may not otherwise have received sufficient support or guidance for liftoff. We will partner with them for our exchange program, as well as with Associação de Jovens Empreendedores (AJE) – Association of Youth Entrepreneurs, and Instituto Mídia Étnica.
In December we participated in GlobalGiving’s Giving Tuesday crowdfunding campaign in order to raise the funds for us to continue our work. Thank you to those of you who donated, shared, and offered your encouragement and support! We encourage you to continue donating throughout the year, as well.
For the next few months in 2020, we are launching monthly themes based around the focus of each of our videos. 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.
Our theme for February is “Black boys and men leading change.” Our main video will be about Vika Mjoka, who works with black teens in Johannesburg, and mentors an ex-convict starting a recycling nonprofit initiative in Alexandra Township—one of the most notorious townships in South Africa.
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 6,000 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!
Best wishes for a prosperous 2020,
The TEP Team
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