By Oscar Mosiane
Belgian-born British actress and humanitarian, Audrey Hepburn, once said: "As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands - one for helping yourself and the other for helping others."
This sentiment resonates with Florence Shange, a 28-year-old lecturer in education at the North-West University's (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus, exemplifying her dedication to self-improvement and aiding others.
Hailing from Letlhabile, Brits in the North West province, Florence holds an MEd in curriculum and instrumental design. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Pretoria.
In 2018, she established the Promise and Prosperity Youth Development Organisation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) aimed at supporting underprivileged youth and restoring their dignity.
The NGO is involved in various outreach initiatives. Members of the organization have facilitated career exhibitions for Grade 11 and 12 learners, organised soup drives for homeless individuals, offered assistance for matric dances, and initiated a sanitary pad drive to address the issue of underprivileged schoolgirls missing school due to the lack of access to sanitary pads.
"The motivation behind starting this organisation stemmed from recognising the need to assist the disadvantaged youth, especially high school learners, in my community with essential resources and information for accessing higher education,” explains Florence.
“Having been involved in leadership positions since my undergraduate years, I wanted to use these skills to help the broader community by expanding our projects.” She says they wanted to address crises such as school absenteeism due to lack of sanitary pads and hunger, and learners missing out on matric dance due to financial constraints.”
She envisions expanding her NGO reach to other communities. They have already started branching out in 2023 by donated sanitary pads at a primary school in Pretoria and a girls’ home in Tembisa.
She foresees partnering with more graduates and small NGOs, focusing on empowering youth with opportunities and skills. Currently, they are preparing to hold a seminar on technology and information for girls.
Florence says one of the challenges that they encounter as NGO is the difficulty of securing sponsors and donors to help them make an impact in people’s lives.
“The issue of securing sponsors continues to be a thorn in our operation, but we continue to make a significant impact through our projects and remain confident that we will find the right sponsors in due time.”
Her advice to others who would like to start their own NGOs or offer their services to the less privileged is that they could start by visiting their former schools or mentoring one child at a time.
“I started small during university holidays, giving motivational talks at three high schools in my community. I also supported a lot of learners with their university applications or higher education queries through a WhatsApp group I created.”
NWU lecturer Florence Shange is passionate about giving back to the community.
