A Wynberg thrift store celebrated its one-year anniversary of making a difference in the lives of unemployed youth on Wednesday November 15.
Isipho, which means “gift” in Zulu and Xhosa, was established as a funding arm of Action Volunteers Africa (AVA), a non-profit organisation that offers on-the-job training, mentorship and other support to people aged 18 to 28, and, according to its executive director, Janine Hansen, it has helped more than 3000 youth in the past 11 years with three-quarters of them going on to find new work or study opportunities.
Desnay Fischer, who now works for a large insurance firm, said she had lacked confidence before doing a year-long AVA programme in 2021.
“I was scared to put myself out there. Attending the workshops from AVA gave me more confidence. Because of AVA, I got to know myself. Nowadays I still apply the knowledge about how to conduct myself in a workplace,” she said.
Ashwin Naidoo did a 10-month stint as a teaching assistant as part of an AVA programme.
“Every week, we had something called Future-Fit-Friday. The AVA mentor brought new ways to improve ourselves every week. Through activities we learned how to implement what we are learning.“
Mr Naidoo is now employed by the school where he worked during the programme.
The organisation also has a Mobile Career Café that takes job-readiness training and career guidance to poor communities across the province.
“We set up a one-stop shop for unemployed youth to access job-readiness training, such as CV-building, career guidance, job-hunting and interview skills,” said Jitske Winkens, a spokesperson for AVA.
She said the public could support AVA by donating clothing and other items to the Isipho Thrift Store, at 72 Church Street, as all proceeds from the store supported programmes tackling youth unemployment.
Isipho also provides criminal background checks for prospective job seekers.
“This can be provided within 48 hours of taking a person’s fingerprints electronically and is commonly requested for pre-employment,” said Ms Hansen.
For information, contact AVA at 021 761 3813.
