Sesi Mahlangu by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. The butterfly effect describes how one small action can have considerable repercussions. Sometimes it’s the simple ideas that can make a huge impact on another person’s life. Sesi Mahlangu is on a mission to give young learners new school shoes. This is her simple idea. It is the backbone of her organisation, Dream Foundation. She believes that a decent pair of shoes can give a child dignity and pride, changing the way they see themselves and the way that they engage with others. By ticking off one of the many items on the worry list of young learners in Ekhuruleni, she believes that they will engage in school a little more, be bullied a little less and walk a little taller. She understands that many kids also need uniforms, textbooks, transport and food, but a decent pair of shoes is a start. “My dream is for them to focus on what they need to focus on. Not having shoes to wear should not be their responsibility.” Sesi’s parents died when she was very young and she was raised by her older sister and her husband, who she now refers to as her parents. She grew up in a family that supported her in every way that they could. It was the realisation that other kids at her school could not afford a pair of shoes that inspired Sesi and her friend to save their money and buy a pair for one of their classmates. In 2019, at the age of 21, Sesi started Dream Foundation and launched a social media campaign to collect 59 pairs of shoes for school children in her community. The next year they managed to collect 89 pairs. Each year they will approach a school and ask the teachers to identify learners who do not have the means to buy shoes. As well as the shoe drive, they also run yearly workshops, called “I’m Complete”, for 50 girls. The program helps them to deal with issues related to GBV, self esteem and teenage pregnancy. They have also started a boy’s camp that aims to get young men talking openly about their struggles and steering them in the direction of becoming more meaningful members of society. “I just have this fire in my heart for the youth, a love for the youth. What my parents gave me, that’s the inspiration. The love that they gave me I want to put out to others that didn’t receive what I got.” This year Sesi wants to raise 120 pairs of shoes for learners in Ekhuruleni. Shoes can be bought for between R250-R300 and are needed in sizes 1-5. To donate a pair, please visit The Actionists website for more details. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Bridget Munnik by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Bridget Munnik, also known as Aunty Bree, became a qualified counsellor 11 years ago. Growing up as an orphan, she knew what it felt like to have nobody to care for her, nobody to guide her, and nobody to congratulate her when she passed her Matric. Early on in life, she made a promise to herself that through her work she would help as many children as she could. Bridget’s ambition has taken her from working at the child welfare centre and volunteering at the family life centre to eventually become the centre manager of the Westbury Youth Centre, a communal space for young people in one of the most troubled suburbs of Johannesburg. It was through an audition poster at the youth centre that Bridget first discovered acting and found her most powerful voice. Westbury is a dangerous place, run by gangs and rife with substance abuse and violence, something that Aunty Bree knows all too well having escaped from a violent and abusive marriage herself. It is through the theatre that she now finds a way to provide a lifeline to those in the community who are too fearful to ask for help, and too scared to speak up. Bridget performs regular radio and stage productions about gender-based violence (GBV), substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and bullying. The intention is to let people know that they are not alone in their struggles with their loved ones. It is a way to open up conversations and to facilitate connections with people who can help. “The use of performance is so important because Westbury is so dangerous. You know there are things happening but you cannot reach out. What I show on stage is that you are not alone. I tell the neighbours and community members not to judge others, and I tell the victims that we see them. After the show, I have to come out of character and be a counsellor.“ When audiences watch Bridget’s performances there is often a moment where they recognise themselves in the characters. This connection provides a valuable way to give advice and support, without having to put anyone at risk. They are shown that there are resources available to help them and encouraged to go to the police or seek support from a social worker. “I also run a workshop with the parents who are hurting. In a dark room, I give everyone a candle. I start with me. I talk about my son who was on drugs. After my story, the next person lights a candle and tells their story about their kid who is on drugs. Brightness comes into the room. In the midst of the dark, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. People have the same stresses but we can support each other if we light the candles one by one.” In Westbury, where speaking up can be fatal, silence is also one of the biggest dangers. Through performance, Aunty Bree has found a powerful way to heal herself whilst also reaching the people who need her. Her voice is loud and her message is clear: “You are not alone and there is help if you need it.” Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Diana Musara by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. There are three things that Diana Musara is passionate about; entrepreneurship, education and the environment. All of these passions now intersect through her NPO, Earthly Touch Foundation, but they started with a school made out of bottles. Whilst volunteering as a director for Khensani’s collection, an after-school program in Diepsloot that supports struggling students with extra lessons, Diana took it upon herself to build a new classroom for the growing number of learners, with over 70 in one room. At a women's network event hosted by Hirshes, Diana was introduced to the concept of eco-bricks. She realised that this simple idea would provide her with a cost-effective building material which also had environmental benefits. Eco-bricks are 2-litre soft drink bottles packed tightly with plastic, a well-insulated alternative to regular bricks. They also provide an upcycling solution for single-use plastics. The school receives large donations of clothes, so Diana put her business background to work and created an exchange program whereby people from the surrounding community could make eco-bricks from plastic they had collected and exchange the bottles for clothes. Diepsloot has a plastic problem. Discarded litter is strewn everywhere, clogging the water systems and piled on the side of the roads. By offering clothes in exchange for plastic trash, Diana was helping to clean up the neighbourhood whilst also providing an opportunity to anyone who wanted to get involved. So far they have received around 5,000 eco-bricks through the exchange program. “I want to do something that can add value and change people’s lives.” The school made out of bottles provides an environmentally friendly structure that is well-insulated and an innovative solution for plastic waste that is not being collected by the municipality. The labour brings much-needed work to an area that is struggling for jobs, and the building provides a valuable after-school facility for kids in the area. With the threat of global warming and carbon emission, the new eco-brick school will contribute to the avoidance of +- 50 tons of carbon into our environment as a result of repurposed plastic bottles, the use of solar, and limiting the use of cement for construction. That’s quite a lot of value through one relatively simple idea. Through the Earthly Touch Foundation, Diana wants to take the idea even further by mentoring construction students in eco-brick building and training them in how to run a business. Find out more at https://www.earthlytouchfoundation.com Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Mbongeni Manzini by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Mbongeni grew up in Meadowlands, Soweto. His family had been forcibly removed from their home in Sophiatown and left on the streets of Soweto. There were no shops, no businesses and no electricity. There was no public transport so people were forced to walk the 21 km to Johannesburg for work. Out of this injustice, a community grew and leaned on each other for support. People organised themselves and soon a functioning suburb was established. It is this memory of community that drives Mbongeni in his actionism. As a child, if anyone needed food and there was nothing at home, they would be fed by someone in the community. If they needed shoes, a neighbour would donate a pair they didn’t need anymore. The community worked as a collective, and he feels responsible for preserving and passing on those values to future generations. His feelings of responsibility for playing his part in the community run so deep that he has taken it upon himself to clean up dumping sites and transform them into gardens, growing vegetables to use as part of his ongoing feeding scheme. From his family home, children from the surrounding areas come and learn about art, nature, and planting food. He sometimes takes them on horseriding and museum trips. The objective is to provide them with an education they cannot receive in school, expanding their experiences and encouraging them to engage more with the world outside their homes. Mbongeni engages with parents, explaining why their children can benefit from his informal program. Often 50 to 60 kids will show up when he has advertised a workshop. On other days they might pop in just for help with their homework. This is Mgongeni’s vision for the world, to create a way of living where doors are always open to help and guide others in the community, just like when he was growing up. Mbongeni has big plans to expand his educational operations and feeding scheme but to do so he needs help. Donations of computers are welcome as well as materials for crocheting and sewing. On a larger scale, he is looking for four 6-metre containers to expand his feeding scheme. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Tamzyn Botha by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Actionism isn’t always about giant projects or making a big noise. Sometimes, simply the way that you position yourself in the world qualifies as a profound form of Actionism, leading by example and creating work practices that encourage positive change within the community around you. Tamzyn Botha runs Shade, an art studio in the small suburb of Brixton, Johannesburg. It is a space for teaching, artist residencies and for her to create commissioned work. Through this space, she also runs a materials library, a space where artists can come and buy found objects to use in their own work. “There is an abundance of materials. In my own work, I use found objects and trash. Some of it is from stuff that I have been collecting from dumps for a couple of years.” The objects for the materials library are sourced in collaboration with local reclaimers, or waste pickers, who sort through trash and recycling on the streets around Brixton. Tamzyn gives them an idea of the kind of items that would be useful to her and then buys what she needs directly from the reclaimers. She then archives and indexes them for the library. “I see myself as a facilitator, connecting the dots between people and opportunities.” Although Tamzyn describes herself as a “glorified hoarder”, and not as an activist, her work is clearly grounded in community upliftment, sustainable living, and environmental responsibility. Through her various projects, the messages of waste and abundance come through loud and clear. Through her actions, we get a real-world example of how we could all live and work with a little more consideration for the community around us. Tamzyn is now excited to be passing these values on to a whole new generation through an art programme that she runs for kids in the local area. Through Shade, Tamzyn also curates the Brixton Light Festival, a community parade that celebrates the diversity of the small suburb. The initiative began with a whole series of events that utilise community engagement methods that were then used as building blocks to curate a festival that is underpinned by inclusivity and that is representative of the community. With over 150 volunteers and 250 artists and performers at the festival itself, the event has mushroomed in size and significance. This year’s theme is “The Watershed - where the waters meet the light”, celebrating and raising awareness of the water system that runs through the whole of Africa and straight through Brixton itself. The festival will include many events and initiatives including a mapping project of the history and geology of Brixton, including the watershed itself and a guerilla blue plaque project, celebrating the unsung heroes of the suburb. The festival starts with a parade from the Brixton market at 4 pm on the 2nd of September. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Ashby Mo by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Empowering the youth of Westbury wasn’t on Ashby’s mind when he approached the youth centre to find studio space for his art. It just so happened that they offered him a space to work in return for his time volunteering to help teach kids how to read. It was initially a way of paying the rent but it quickly turned into so much more. Sometimes you have to go looking really hard for purpose and meaning, sometimes it finds you. Ashby is a devoted conceptual artist who creates masks and three-dimensional collages that explore issues to do with magic and sorcery. Coming from a community such as Westbury in Johannesburg, he knows how hard it can be to find mentors from within your community, especially in a field such as fine art. Westbury has suffered at the hands of increasing gang violence over the last few years and, even though it is a very small suburb in a very large city, its reputation is growing as one of the most dangerous parts of Johannesburg. Working out of the youth centre gave Ashby a chance to provide the artistic mentorship, that he could never find, to a new generation of upcoming artists in the community; and has solidified his passion for art as a vehicle for social change. Over the last 5 years, in return for his studio space, Ashby has been mentoring a group of local artists through a creative recovering program, providing them with tools and exercises to open up their creativity and use it as a means of self-expression. He is passionate about art and the important place that it holds within society, especially for the youth, and through his program, he hopes to empower the kids from Westbury to go out and confidently pursue their dreams. Alongside his artistic courses, he also runs the reading program and community garden at the youth centre. Find Ashby on Instagram @stdiosba and learn more about the Westbury Youth Centre on their website. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Wayne Jean-Pierre by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Halfway through my interview with Wayne Jean-Pierre, he breaks down in tears. I have just asked him why he has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to helping other people clear their criminal records. His answer is simple and clear. If he knows how to do it, then it is his responsibility to help others who don’t. And ‘it’, navigating the bureaucratic gauntlet that stands in the way of hope and opportunity, is no simple task. “Our country has over one million people registered on a criminal database, most are poor and vulnerable and will never get assistance because they won't get resources.” It is a kindness and generosity that not everyone would show, especially towards so many people who he does not know, over such a long period of time. But to understand why it is such an emotional issue for him we need some context... Wayne Jean-Pierre was born and raised in Wentworth, a coloured community on the outskirts of Durban. The challenges of growing up in apartheid were many, but in a community such as Wentworth, just standing your ground against a police force that was out to vilify you, could get you into serious trouble. Over the course of the last century, thousands of people have received criminal records for “crimes” under the apartheid laws. Offences that are based on old legislation, archaic race laws and for defending themselves against a system that was constructed to control them. Of course, there were also legitimate causes for criminal records, but many of them could also be categorised as crimes that were forced onto people out of necessity. Is it a crime to steal food to feed your children when the government will not allow you to work? “If you look at criminality we have to look at the decolonisation of criminality and those offences.” In 2010 Wayne had his criminal record cleared. To me, the nature of his crime did not matter. I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell. The very fact that he had cleared his record indicated that it fell into the categories that meant his “freedom” was deemed warranted. A crime is not annulled on a whim or by fluke, there is a complicated and lengthy process of assessment. All the more need for someone like Wayne, who had experienced the system and learned how it works. Many people who have a criminal record cannot afford a lawyer, many cannot read, and often they do not have access to the technology needed to simply print and scan a form. But almost all of them feel the weight of historic injustice. “To build up a pardon file can take about three months. As more people start doing it, the process becomes longer and corruption starts to kick in. When police officers are not doing their work, the public pays the price.“ Motivated by the need to assist as many people as possible, Wayne has developed an online platform that helps people to expunge their criminal records. ClearMe is a free and simple tool that takes the user through a step-by-step process. Users are initially helped to assess whether they are eligible to have their records cleared (based on their original sentence or punishment) and, if eligible, they are taken through the paperwork and application process needed to proceed. “Driven by the injustice. What I have learned, people will get for free. I could be a millionaire over and over, I could easily open files for people and charge them money but at the end of the day, it's not going to reach the people that need the assistance.“ Wayne’s actions raise an important question about our responsibility towards the people around us. If we have the knowledge to help people with something that could change their lives for the better, is it not our imperative, as humans, to do so? For Wayne the answer is simple. Yes. What’s your answer? Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Sherie De Wet by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. The numbers that Sherie De Wet reels off are staggering, and the pride that she exudes as she does so says everything you need to know about her journey from corporate accountant to social entrepreneur, and founder of Palesa Pads. 780,000 reusable pads sold. 120,000 girls helped. 156,000,000 disposable pads kept out of the environment. Sherie had her ‘road to Damascus’ moment in 2017 whilst on a business trip to Kinshasa in DRC. Seeing a young girl on the side of the road, abandoned by her parents because they did not have the means to raise her, and the realisation that this was not an isolated incident, was the motivation that she needed to do something with her life that had more purpose. She read a Facebook post about girls missing out on school because they could not afford to buy sanitary pads, ran the numbers and made a decision. Overnight Sherie’s world changed and an obsession began; to create and produce an affordable, high-quality, reusable sanitary pad; for the environment, for young learners and for every other person who menstruates. Over the next six months, she researched, created and tested dozens of designs, combining different materials and shapes to find the best combination for the product. She tested every design on herself, every month whilst she had her period, and made notes on each of the different prototypes. “If it isn’t good enough for me why should it be good enough for anyone else” Eventually, she settled on a combination of fabrics and a design that worked and she hasn’t looked back. These days Palesa Pads produces around 400 pads a day from a small factory in Meyerton, Gauteng. Most of these are donated to girls who need them through sponsorship programs, allowing corporates and individuals to buy the pads at a low price and distribute them. The pads themselves last for five years and are incredibly efficient and hygienic. They come in five different sizes and work out to approximately 10% of the price of disposable pads, over a five-year period*. Looking back on the journey, Sherie is clear about the fact that she makes a lot less money now than she did as an accountant, but the impact that she is having on the environment and the lives of others is well worth the sacrifice. * 5 years' worth of disposable pads would cost approximately R3000, not accounting for inflation, as compared to R300 worth of reusable Palesa Pads for the same length of time. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Helen Duigan by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. On first meeting, you could be forgiven for underestimating Helen Duigan, but her reputation as an activist is not in any doubt. For over thirty years she and her husband Anthony have dedicated themselves to protecting the natural resources in the Greenbelt area southwest of Pretoria. At 81, she is now passionate about connecting and supporting other environmental activists around the country through their organisation ARMOUR (Action For Responsible Management of Our Rivers). It all started when they moved out to the countryside in 1977, looking for a place where they could raise their family, away from the city. A place where the air was clean and the kids could roam free. They found some land in the rolling hills of Gauteng, outside Pretoria, between the Jukskei, Hennops and Crocodile Rivers, an area rich in natural beauty and resources. The Duigans found themselves having to oppose various applications to develop the surrounding areas, firstly from a government that planned to build a vast low-cost housing development in 1986 and then from private industries that wanted to mine, develop and monetise the land. For the last 35 years, Helen and Anthony have found themselves working alongside many other activists to create the Rhenosterspruit Nature Conservancy, as a viable platform to protect the space. Through various battles, they and many environmental activists from across South Africa established the National Association of Conservancy and Stewardship that brought together a large number of people from all provinces who were trying to protect endangered areas of land. “Linkages were being made on an important level, bringing together the 'lone rangers' to create an army!.. This is a life task. A sacred task. Fighting for something that simply has to be done” Eventually, landowners led by the late Mercia Komen, a fellow activist, managed to get the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy officially proclaimed as the Crocodile River Reserve in 2019, a process through which a valuable network of connections was made. It is this passion for the connection of like-hearted people that Helen has continued to pursue. She now runs the ARMOUR Facebook page. It is a community of concerned citizens that focuses on natural resources and how we protect them. The purpose is to connect and support environmental activists from all around the country. But Helen had been building this community without the help of social media for 36 years. In 2002 she started a newspaper called the Karee Chronicle. It was her way of being able to communicate with people living in the surrounding areas about the environmental threats and opportunities that they faced. Every two months she would produce an in-depth publication, print 2,500 copies and personally distribute it to her subscribers. This was followed by an e-zine, VeldTalk, which reached even larger numbers of people. For Helen and Anthony Duigan, protecting the natural world is what they do, it’s what they will always do. These days social media just makes it a little easier for them to assemble their army. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Tshepiso Makoni by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Art changes the people who engage with it, sometimes in the most subtle ways. Artists find inspiration and meaning in different places, the motivational drive to create is fed by the feeling of making something with purpose. Purpose, to Tshepiso, comes in starting conversations that change the way her community sees themselves, and each other. As one half of the artistic duo Tebo X Emeka, Tshepiso creates T-shirts that fuse photography and graphic design to gently push tired old narratives in a new direction. For their first project, Taxiology, they focused on the taxi industry around Soweto. They wanted to celebrate the industry for its unique position in South African culture, accepting the perceived view of taxis as inconvenient, noisy and dangerous whilst also celebrating the positive interactions that they facilitate. You can’t find the culture that we have here anywhere else. When you get inside a taxi you have to greet everyone, you combine your money with the other passengers and send it to the front. You tell jokes, you discuss the news. Tebo X Emeka wants to help people see themselves for who they are and who they could be by providing representation of township culture in fashion, using the T-Shirt as an accessible, portable gallery for purpose-driven artwork. More recently Tshepiso has designed and created the disability pride t-shirt, again looking to change the conversation around a subject that has been stigmatised and stereotyped. T-Shirts are a way to begin a conversation, for us to be able to represent people with disabilities. It allows for their voices to be heard and for them to be seen. Her hope is that the t-shirts will start a conversation and become a driving force for action. They want to partner with the government to use disability pride shirts as a starting point to create a new language around disability, public consciousness and acceptance. By creating work that has meaning, and the intention to drive conversation, Tshepiso is planting the seeds of change in her community. To change the way that people view their community and therefore themselves is no small idea. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate