ACTIVATOR PROFILE

Kindly answer the following questions and elaborate as desired. Don’t forget to send us a photo of yourself!

Name:Xolisile Malgas

Province:Eastern Cape

Facebook: Jean Pier La’petit

Twitter handle:@axedzembe

Write a short blurb (summary) about yourself. In no more than three sentences.

• Xolisile is a person who is self-aware and as such is aware of others.
• He keeps an open mind in all interactions, is free spirited, very spiritual and emotionally attuned.
• He values trust, honesty, authenticity & altruism.

Why did you decide to be part of the ACTIVATE! Network?

• Initially I was just looking for assistance with project planning and implementation, a friend suggested Activate! Forwarded me the website link and I applied. The training program to module one intake one changed my whole perspective about life and things I thought I had a full grasp and understanding on, but besides that I had a longing need to be connected with a network of people who share my beliefs (constantly developing, challenging existing narratives and seek to have an impact). I would say I joined Activate! To have a voice that can be heard, to gain access to a support structure that can further my cause.

What did you enjoy the most about training?

• The program is so intelligently put together that I’m not certain where to start, the Identity part in the introduction phase of the training and the one aspect stands out for me is the Collage which required deep introspection, a very effective approach to braking bearers in a group setting that not only allowed us to speak freely amongst each other but an immediate trust was formulated. The other more technical stuff; the tools we used in project planning and monitoring and evaluation that is the washline methodology for project planning, the Matrix for monitoring and evaluation, the object cards for creative thought and problem solving.
• The LEMON leadership model offered great insights into personality types which puts you one up with other people as you get to be able to understand what drives them and informs their behavior, the other part that stood out for me which I enjoyed most was being given creative freedom, allowed to dream, share and paint my vision for South Africa.

How has training helped you or changed your perspective?

• I work for a non-profit organization and I’m one of the founding members and it has not been an easy task setting up the organisation, trying to communicate our message as clearly as possible so we can be impactful in our intervention. The tools I received from the training allowed us to develop easy models we can use to drive and shape our organization forward; the use of social media to run campaigns and garner support from like minded people and possibly reach even more audiences, on a personal basis it has assisted me to truly understand who I am and how I should serve my purpose.

What do you think the role of the youth is in developing the country?

• We as the youth have a massive responsibility in shaping the development of the country, the country in the next 30 years will be reaping the benefits of our efforts today, whether those benefits will be positive or not is what makes the youth so important in the development of the country. We have the opportunity to reshape our society and we have every tool available to us, access to unlimited knowledge, aid from many sectors. So our role as the youth is to ensure we develop fully our mental capacity, understand governance and governments, economies and economics which in turn affords us opportunities to shape an efficient future for all South Africans. Our role as the youth is to redefine the narrative, it is to be personally developed,our role is to be informed so we can inform our role as youth that is constantly aware about socioeconomic issues and indeed active.

What is your field of interest?

• My field of interest is personal development and I currently use financial literacy as a tool to raise awareness on how powerful we’re when we are informed. My passion is currently shifted towards youths and teaching them how to create wealth and self-actualization models.

How are you driving change in your community /How would you like to drive change in your community?

• We conceptualized a financial model that would assist young high school pupils from my community with registration fees (in my community the prevailing statistics on population is that we’re 60% youth and the sad part is 40% of that youth only has secondary education) and this status quo spares a number of social ills, and offers no growth and development in the long run if community members are unskilled or undereducated.
• Mwanga Youth Development Fund aims to foster wealth creation as a study to grade 8-12 pupils, it is pivotal to our existence that all kids be financially literate,emotionally intelligent, computer literate and can drive or understand Road rules and this is what we believe every child who exits high school should be equipped with and this should have no direct link to their background or social standing but must be a right afforded to every child and that is what we aim to achieve.

Now that you have completed training, how do you plan to keep active in the network?

• A number of tools have been given to us to use effectively and one of those is knowing how local governments work and how can we make manicipalities work. I would love to use this knowledge and equip my community to understand what platforms are available to us to ensure accountability in public servants but also to expand knowledge in them.
• To the network staying connected and presenting a united front this means involving Activators in all our initiatives as a non-profit and our community drives, hosting personal development seminars and financial literacy workshops, constantly posting relevant material for our development on the network’s virtual space that is how I aim to remain active within the Network.

What are your plans for this year?

• We at Mwanga Youth Development Fund are planning to host a student member workshop to our registered members and reaffirming to our constituency what our full program entails, the workshop we host 250 schooling pupils in grades 8-12 with their parents and a teacher as a school representative. The workshop will take an investment approach and that requires that we invite Bank representatives to emphasize the importance of savings and investment (our constituency of 250 pupils from that day onwards will go on a personal investment drive where each day of their lives moving forward they’ll have to save and invest R1 each day towards their tertiary education (registration fees).
• After this successful launch we aim to host a career EXPO for high school pupils in this area of Mdantsane, the expo will entail certain aspects for development, career advice, matrix and varsity points system explanation, bursary opportunities and assisted with applications to varsity and detailed financial aid models and we aim to do this when schools reopen in July 2017. We aim to host a workshop that prioritises on young girls on the 9^th of August where we will invite affluent and dynamic young women movers and shakers who can reignite confidence in young girls and not just teach them about teenage pregnancy and underage drinking but instill a value of success in young girls growing up in townships.
• On the 24^th of September we aim to host a debate by young pupils from our constituency on what is heritage and how does it benefit us in 2017, does it need redefining to include the new generation of thinkers? Our last activity for the year will be the launch of a crowd funding model to raise funds to ensure our grade 12 students have enough monies for registration the following year, the campaign will be targeted to all South Africans and affording them the opportunity to change some else’s life, the campaign will be called the #R1Initiative and we aim to reach out to all walks of life to just donate R1 for a grade 12 pupil to study the following year.

Are you involving / How will you be involving the network in your plans?

• In the training we were exposed to new ways on how to use social media to drive social change and run campaigns, we will use the network in all our plans and we would love time slots to have an opportunity to take-over the virtual space (social media platforms) and extend our reach to the country & beyond. By growing visibility of the network and its Activities in my community will help to Activate! More youths.

Additional information you would like us to know?

• Mwanga Youth development fund is a developmental organisation and we endorse personal development as a tool to cultivate fully functional and efficient communities.
• We need assistance in developing a Financial Literacy module, an emotional intelligence module and these are tools we aim to use to add-on what is currently being offered in public schools and to further our cause.
• Our ultimate aim is to initially reach out to 25 high schools in my community which have 14 580 pupils in grades 8-12 and we need to instill a culture of saving to this group by allowing them to actively participate in the crafting of their future, what this means is that 14 580 will be investing R1 daily to guarantee a place in varsity for a fellow student and is about R4.3 million in a ten month schooling year, money raised to the benefit of just 200 matric students out of the 14 580 and what this means in two decades  about 40 000 pupils from my community will have seen the doors of university and possibly a graduate in some discipline.
• Now what this means for the socio-economic conditions, is a positive influx of a well informed community and advanced decision makers both financially literate and emotionally intelligent and this means we no longer concern ourselves about drug and substance abuse, we no longer worry about crime, but rather-prosperity and living our values is what governs our existence.

      Any form of assistance to help us realize this vision is welcomed

                                                        Together we prosper !

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