Many South Africans have the skills and passion to really make a difference in their communities - all they need is the means. Enter the Vodacom Change the World programme, which supports visionaries who want to make the world a better place.

The Vodacom Foundation Change the World programme (CTW) gives participants the chance of a lifetime: to work for a non-profit organisation (NPO) for a year, while Vodacom covers their usual salaries.

The 2018 edition is the eighth year this wonderful programme has been running. In honour of International Women’s Week, we take a look at just three of the incredible women who are part of CTW this year.

Kerry Hibberd

Kerry (29) is an award-winning marketing and advertising specialist from Joburg. To make the most of her skills in brand strategy, she will be voluntereing at OLICO Education as a strategist and marketer.

OLICO operates in Gauteng and the Western Cape building maths and literacy solutions for township communities. Their programmes include the use of tutoring and information technology to help kids learn to love maths.

Kerry will be assisting in the develoment of new online maths content for grades 1-6, and creating marketing strategies to spread the word among learners, teachers and organisations about OLICO’s free resources.

Kelly says: ‘In my professional career, I have always sought out good advertising opportunities and in my spare time, I have been offering my skills to OLICO to boost their impact in maths education in SA. Now I get to do this every day for a year!’

Doreen Lesitla

Electronic and IT engineer Doreen (33) will be volunteering at the Thusano Prevention Programme in her hometown of Maboloka Village, near Brits.

Thusano aims to reduce the number of children who leave school early because of poverty. They offer one meal a day, as well as counselling, help with homework and physical activities. Thusano also runs holiday programmes to keep kids off the streets when schools are closed.

Doreen will join them as a skills development facilitator. She will also make use of her social work skills to provide support to vulnerable children.

Doreen was motivated to apply for CTW because of her passion for impacting the lives of children and young people. ‘I want to see them being able to use computers in order to do their school work in this world of technology,’ she says.

Josephine (Joss) Letseli

Joss (28) will spend her year making a difference at the Macro Informative Youth Agency (MIYA). She will be putting her BTech in Marketing to good use use as a programme manager, tackling a variety of projects, including an Early Childhood Technology Development programme.

MIYA focusses on developing kids and youth in rural areas by using technology to bridge the gap between the world of work and higher institutions. Joss aims to improve young people’s prospects of finding employement and achieving their dreams.

She says: ‘I know for a fact that through this programme I will be helping other young people. We may not be able to change the whole world at once, but we are making a difference in the lives of more than one individual and that is the change I would like to see.’

Find out more

Read more about the Change the World volunteers here and here, and keep an eye out for the 2018 application date on the Vodacom CTW website.