Sibongile Ndebele: I want to help girls avoid the mistakes I made

Sibongile Ndebele (50), uses her organisation Nqolobane, to guide and nurture young women in Orange Farm. The raison d’etre for her organisation is that she saw a need in the community to help shape young women given the environment they live in.

Ndebele is ‘umama wamatshitshi’ she has 33 young women under Nqolobane, which she established to help these women avoid the mistakes she made in her life. Ndebele is of the view that education can take someone out of bad situation. Therefore seeing the girls progress in life in particular when it comes to education is what fulfils her and encourages her to keep going.

She is someone, who loves working with her hands and stimulating her mind. She juggles Nqolobane with her duties at Nkosana Ngobese Foundation (NNF), which she joined in early 2023. At the Foundation she found opportunities to gain skills using her mind and hands such as puppet making, pottery and sewing costumes. As she is working in a low income area, financial challenges are a harsh reality she has to deal with.

In most cases she is helped financially by the parents of the girls she works with. Financial aid could go a long way in helping Nqolobane reach more young women in the area.