Youth unemployment and learner difficulties are major challenges in this community.
Through our partnership with YearBeyond, we are able to offer tangible solutions in the
form of mentorship, tutoring and programmes to address these issues.

Work Experiences

Love to Give provides 50 Youth (18 – 25 year old’s) with a meaningful work experience for one year. This experience provides a pathway to further studies or work while at the same time encouraging a culture of active citizenship and volunteerism.

We do this through our partnership with YearBeyond. Love to Give is the implementing partner of their @HomeLearning and Catch-Up Programmes in Kayamandi. We provide mentoring and management of the interns, also called YeBoneers. During the time they are on the programme, they receive a monthly stipend.

We build the competence of these youths through on the job mentoring and support, a weekly personal and professional development training programme and targeted work readiness and study support.

They work as education activators in two Primary Schools. They offer fun interactive learning for Grade R to Grade 6 learners who have dropped out of school or who are falling behind. They also facilitate parent and caregiver workshops. On Friday mornings, they participate in Future Fit Fridays to prepare them for the time when their work experience with us comes to an end.

YearBeyond builds social and economic networks by providing youth with pathway support including connections to other youth, study and employment opportunity providers and alumni. YearBeyond also provides corporates and institutions with an opportunity to be part of the solution.

Learner Educational Support

@HomeLearning and Catch-Up Programmes

We employ two mentors to support the fifty YeBoneers who are working with the learners for the year. Each YeBoneer works with either 12 or 20 learners, depending on the programme. The total number of learners assisted this year is 760.

The goal of these programmes is to promote the value of education. The YeBoneers support learners in school with one-on-one paired reading or mathematics, and after school with homework. The aim is to improve learners’ involvement, understanding and performance through the year which is measured in the improvement of their marks.

In the afternoons, the YeBoneers do the following play-based educational activities with the learners: Na’liBali, Singakwenza and WordWorks. After school activities take place at the Love to Give centre and at our satellite centre after they have eaten their meals.

Book sharing

Mikhulu Trust trained our staff as book-sharing facilitators. They run workshops with mothers and other caregivers on how to share books effectively with small children. In order to encourage further sharing of books at home, we have opened a library that stocks children’s books for use by local families.

Book-sharing is about having a stimulating and rich interaction between an adult and a child over a picture-book. It involves the carer engaging the child actively in conversation about the content of the pictures, relating it to their own experience, and encouraging the child’s curiosity and thinking skills. Regular sharing of books in this manner increases the child’s vocabulary, improves focus and ensures they are better equipped when entering primary school.