Thandi’s mother has been unbale to consistently work to earn a living, as she has to look after the household. When she was able to work, she looked for small jobs in other villagers’ fields. As a result, the family’s financial instability made life for them really challenging, and difficult for Thandi’s mother to meet her family’s basic needs. Thandi often was unable to go to school, as her mother was often unable to afford her basic school supplies. When she was able to return to school, she often went to school with hardly any school supplies, and on an empty stomach. Travelling to school also proved difficult for her as she lives ten kilometres away, which took her several hours to walk to school, making her very tired and unable to fully concentrate in class, or when she arrives back home after school, to either do her homework or study.
After meeting Thandi’s teachers at her school, we found out that her academic ability was exceptional, and that she was one of the top students in her class, despite her missing numerous days of school at a time. She is a really hard worker, and has a strong passion to be educated. Her teachers believe that with Catalyst Foundation’s support, she has the potential to accomplish phenomenal results in her exams and achieve great things in her future.
Through our holistic support provided to Thandi, we were able to remove all of her barriers, allowing her to go to school and continue with her education. We provided her with new school uniforms, shoes, a school bag, stationery, textbooks, exercise books, sanitary wear and family food hampers. Thandi’s mother now has peace of mind, knowing that all of her needs are taken care of by the Catalyst Foundation, allowing her to now focus on supporting Thandi’s siblings, and other family members as best as she possibly can.
Since joining the S.H.E Programme, Thandi has transformed into a confident individual, and is motivated to continue studying hard to complete her studies with flying colours. Once she finishes her secondary schooling, she has dreams of going to university to become a Nurse.
We asked Thandi to share with us in one sentence what the
Catalyst Foundation – S.H.E Programme means to her:
“My future now has hope because of the support that I receive from the Catalyst Foundation.”