Pamela Makenete (25), who has been part of the Dreams Thina Abantu Abasha programme for the past 2 years, completed her LLB degree in 2019 at University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is an independent, hardworking young woman who loves meeting new people and travelling. Her true passion is aligned with any upliftment of other young women; upholding the rights and promoting the interests of children and women. She lives by the basic motto of doing good and being good towards others therefore she is always involved in some volunteering initiative that she can balance on the side to her careers work.

Pamela has always thrived to balance her academics with community service and from the moment she stepped into UKZN, she involved herself in organizations that changed the lives of people in many different communities around SA (such as Student dynamics and Enactus UKZN). She has been a peer educator since her second year of varsity and after serving 2 years as a peer educator she continued to serve as a Peer mentor for newly recruited Peer educators. She enjoys imparting her knowledge and skills so as to empower others to become the best they could be.

Nkosinathi Hadebe (26) holds a Bachelor of Social Science (Criminology and Sociology) degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was an active executive committee member of a peer education programme called “Campus HIV and AIDS Support Unit” (CHASU). As part of this programme, he was a role model who demonstrated a healthy, responsible lifestyle to other students on campus and provided information on issues affecting the lives of young people, such as gender equity, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, life skills and the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

He took part in the 2017 International AIDS Conference and has proven to be a good listener and communicator, as well as an effective facilitator. He has also demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, having started “Anti-Drug Movement” in 2014, which has a school-based programme called “Smart Club”, with the aim of creating awareness about increasing substance abuse in schools in the Hillcrest area, where his duties included leading the team and fundraising to keep the programme going. Nkosinathi is passionate about working with people and finding innovative ways to help others.

Matshediso Sibande (24) is a penultimate LLB student at the University of South Africa and also studies towards a Wealth Management Diploma at Milpark Business School.

She has worked in various positions in a number of industries, including serving as an Office Administrator at Steel Mining and Commercial Workers Union, Receptionist at Clinton Hospital, a Catering assistant at BZL, Financial Agent at Circle Finance and Sales and Marketing Associate at CREDICO. She is a passionate public speaker and enjoys giving motivational talks to her peers. Matshediso is a finalist in “One Day Leader”, a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reality television competition that aims to identify and develop young leaders between the ages of 18 and 25.

She is actively involved in community service and was part of a three-month community development project by Tearfund (UK) where she facilitated female empowerment workshops and conducted teaching sessions in schools in Ghana and Chesterville, KZN, she was also involved in projects such as recycling initiatives, tree planting as well as hospital and old age home visits.

She also served as a Tutor and Soup Kitchen Assistant at her High School in Vosloorus and is involved in outreach programmes from Agape, her Family Church where she has also taken part in designing a Teen Mentorship Programme alongside four other dynamic Young people and her Spiritual Mother.

Asisipho Dlakavu (24) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Sciences from the University of the Western Cape. During her studies she was the secretary for the house committee at her residence, and this developed her leadership qualities. She was also a tutor for mathematics and a demonstrator/tutor for chemistry, to assist students who were struggling with maths and chemistry. That’s where her passion for helping young people grew. In 2017 she graduated and then started volunteering and tutoring students in her community.

In 2018 she joined the DREAMS Thina Abantu Abasha as a program trainer to help reduce the rate of HIV infections in girls and young women between the ages 12-24. She was a program trainer until 2019 and is now currently a Youth Leadership Team member and continues to actively work hand-in-hand with the program to bring about change in the lives of young female adolescents.

Asisipho is also part of the women and girls change makers, which aims at empowering women by uniting them and girls in the community, addressing social ills and come up with solutions of how to tackle them. She does all this while continuing to offer tutoring lessons in the community and encourages the youth to protect themselves so that the spread of HIV doesn’t increase.

Her main passion is to help those in need whichever way she can. That’s why she’s involved in projects from her church, the community at large and of course the Dreams Thina Abantu Abasha program, so she can reach more people she’s able to help and bring about change in their lives.

Mahlohonolo Chalatse (24) holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Independent Institute of Education (IIE) Rosebank College. She is a Director of NPO Bala Le Rona Literacy Club. The aim of the club is improving literacy in children, by empowering them with the love of reading and writing, through our literacy exercises. We aim to develop competencies and character qualities such as critical thinking, problem solving, leadership, curiosity, etc. She is responsible for chairing the meetings of the club, thus demonstrating her leadership skills, assist with administrative roles, which include support with drafting lesson plans and proposals. She also assists with recording the weekly attendance register, as well as planning and organizing fundraising activities and facilitating lesson plans.

In 2018 she joined the Dreams Thina Abantu Abasha program as a Program Trainer. DreamsTAA initiative is a youth-led Peer-to-peer educational programme, supported by Johnson & Johnson, in partnership with the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) which aim to decrease the rate of HIV infections amongst adolescent girls and young women in districts within KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
In 2019 she was one of the mentors for the Girl Ignite Africa Summit that was held from the 26th to 30th September. She is currently a Youth Leadership Team member for Dreams.

Mahlohonolo is passionate about adding practical and demonstrable value into the lives of people in her community and country. She enjoys being used as a vessel to inform and propagate ideologies to other young people, thus empowering them and herself into making well-grounded life decisions.