Venice Marutha Venice Marutha
Venice Marutha Venice Marutha is a communicator with experience in the Event Management and Planning within the voluntary sector. She has worked in a non-profit organisation in Pretoria as a Communication and Public Relations intern where she later volunteered in the same department. Venice specialises in Public Speaking and delivering of planned presentations particularly in Youth development and Women rights such as Human and Gender inequality, a strong believer in the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”. She regularly volunteers in youth programmes and assist with campaigns that revolutionize equal, fair and effective society. Venice enjoys engaging and socialising with people but can also be found in a quiet space drafting stories about the journey of her life.
Walusungu Lulukile Ngulube
From Malawi, Walu is our SADC rep on the team. Walusungu Lulukile Ngulube is a social entrepreneur, communications and development specialist with five years, community, national, continental and International development experience. Her passion to help people is the reason she founded Inspiration Koner Youth-Led Initiative, a non-profit that has since impacted over 2000 youth and women in Malawi. She spent a year as an African Union Volunteer on the African- German Youth Initiative working as Youth Project Coordinator in South Africa and currently serves as board member of the Southern African Alumni network. Currently, she is working as Project Development Manager for Naturally Volunteers Africa; a community based non-profit in rural Malawi. Walusungu recently partnered with her South African friend to co-found Mbokodo Artistry an online business enterprise. Her goal is to specialize as an International development expert in the implementation of more sustainable projects especially in Africa and to provide platforms for local entrepreneurs to sell their products.
Nolitha January
Nolitha is a ‘weltwärts and SAGE Net Alumni, who is now one of the core team members the Southern African Alumni Network. She was a volunteer in Germany for a year, in 2016-2017, working for Lebenshilfe Bonn and Masifunde Germany. She continues to work in the space of youth exchange through the Southern African Alumni Network and says that she hopes to inspire other young people to take part in life-changing projects, just as she did.
Grant Bellairs
My name is Grant Bellairs, I am a Psychology graduate who has been working in the education and training industry for the last 8 years. I have spent the last 6 years of my life working in the NGO sector focussing on Youth Development through Skills Training. In 2014 I was part of an ASA exchange where we were doing comparative research on methodologies to deal with youth unemployment, with the city of Aachen and Cape Town as our research groups. I believe that education is of key importance in solving youth unemployment but not just regular academics, rather having a mixture of education initiatives that can accommodate learners at various phases of learning. I am passionate about the education of youth, I believe if we can give them the skills and support, they can become the driving force behind social change and pioneers in innovative solutions for our problems.
Lebogang Mokoena
Lebogang Mokoena is a member of the Southern African Alumni Network (SAAN). She graduated with a BA in Communication Science and BA Honours in Journalism. Currently, she is a Master of Arts (MA) student in journalism at the University of Johannesburg, with specific interest in investigative journalism. Her master thesis focuses on comparing commercial and non-profit investigative journalism as means to achieve journalistic excellence. In this study, she seeks to examine the means of attaining investigative journalistic excellence with reference to the commercial investigative unit of the weekly newspaper, the Sunday Times and the recently established non-profit amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. As a freelancer, she has published articles for The Journalist, Daily Vox, the New Age, Cape Argus and the Daily Sun. Lebogang is also a participant at Right2Know Campaign. She is based in Soweto.
Nomfusi Msizi
Nomfusi is a young person from a previously disadvantaged background where they are exposed to the heart of the Township and the living standards of people in the shack, where crime is one of the sources of surviving and no clean sanitation, nowadays gives her the confidence to change the outlook of people in her community and how individuals think and interact with each other. She is an active person, who’s passionate about making a difference, and advocating on social-issues, determined on amplifying the voices that lacks access to the means of spreading out and Education and skills development. When she held all these socio-economic issues we’re facing as a Country, she feels the need to take action. At the age of 16 she leaned with other young people from her community to start an organization, Candoz Art Centre, which offers an opportunity to young people to grow by providing them with a platform to showcase their talents such as poetry, drama, singing and dance, while inspiring others. In 2017 she was selected to go abroad for a year on a voluntary program in a Children’s home in Lich, Germany through the South African President is German Network (SAGE net) and Masifunde Learner Development. She was facilitating extra-curricular activities with a focus on global learning. She is a passionate volunteer with a desire to help others. Early this year she had an opportunity to be one of the few that have been selected to attend the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York, representing her country, the Continent and the Society at large. She wants to continue to apply the same diligence to the betterment of the society, making education, skills and service to others her top priority, working with them to harness education and skills to address social challenges that we face every day. She wants to be a good example and a role model to her peers, showing them that your background does not limit or determine your future. Make them see education and skills as the power to eradicate the shackles of socio-economic issues.