Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation aims to transform the lives of boys instead of concentrating on girls as is the norm these days.
The foundation’s CEO Tumisang Skosana said the following:
“There is a social imbalance in that most of the time girls are the ones that are catered for and empowered via various programmes like the ‘Take a girl child to work’ and the Oprah Winfrey School of Excellence also caters for girls only, and this leaves boys behind because they have not been socialised; leading to lack of confidence and sophistication among them and incidents of GBV against girls and women.”
She revealed that she often hosts mentoring sessions for boys who are in the Dlalisa Moyeni mentorship programme at her home in the suburbs so as to take them away from the chaotic life of the township and let them see that success is possible; that they don’t have to be thugs but rely on hard work to achieve success in their lives.
On Thursday 17 April the Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation held what is called Transformative Matriculant Students Mentorship Workshop aimed at empowering Grade 12 boy learners who are in the foundation’s programme because they are now preparing for their final examinations and future career paths.
The workshop was conducted at the Lombardy Estate in Tshwane and was hosted by Skosana herself together with her husband Bongani Skosana, who is the chairperson of the Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation.
The interactive workshop provided Matriculants with academic and career guidance, as well as emotional support through sessions led by industry experts, educators and motivational speakers.
Highlights of the Mentorship Workshop included an address by CEO Tumisang Skosana, panel discussions on overcoming academic challenges and post Matric opportunities, as well as one-on-one mentorship interactions between students and professionals.
“This workshop is a critical step in ensuring that our Matriculants are not only academically-equipped but are also emotionally resilient and future-ready,” said CEO Skosana.
The workshop was attended by 96 boys from 4 schools in Nellmapius and Mamelodi and many of them have been in the Foundation’s programme since they were in Grade 10 and are now in Grade 12.
Skosana pointed out that she is monitoring the boys’ study habits and is targeting Maths and Maths Literacy as she wants to see an improvement in their marks in this regard.
She said the boys must be used to tackling a 3 hour Maths paper by practicing to do so often as this will familiarise them with the final Maths examination paper that they are eventually going to write at the end of the year.
She revealed that she has introduced the 21 Day Challenge whereby boys from each school must work together as a group and help one another to improve their marks.
To this end, Skosana has offered the winning school a cash prize as a reward.
Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to advancing education, leadership and community development.
“Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation is all about character-building and aims to change lives of boys for the better and I am of the opinion that in future these boys will be better fathers and husbands,” enthused Skosana.
21-year-old Lebogang Sedibana from Nellmapius Secondary School told Tshwane Talks that the Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation programme has helped him to do away with his “streetwise” lifestyle and focus on what he really wants in life and his performance at school has now improved tremendously.
Thulani Dladla from RibaneLaka joined the programme in 2024 and admitted that he was a “lone wolf” doing things on his own; that it was him against the world; that he was full of anger and ignorance, but the programme has taught him to be calm in the face of adversity and also how to interact with other people.
William Maphosa from Vukani Mawethu Secondary joined the programme in 2023 while he was in Grade 10 and said the foundation has accepted them the way they are without judging them and he is grateful to have met influential people who occupied prominent positions in society and who gave him advice as to how to tackle various situations in life during a gala dinner that was organised by the Foundation way back in 2023.
He revealed that there is a friend of his who used to be a drug addict but that friend has since changed his bad habits since joining Dlalisa Moyeni and is now fully focused on his school work.
Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation Chairperson and founder Bongani Skosana told Tshwane Talks that during the workshop the boys watched a movie called “Same Kinds of Different” which is about an old destitute man who had a difficult life as he grew up without parents and ended up living in the streets.
“The said old man in the movie then meets a married couple who can’t have kids of their own and were volunteering at an orphanage and that’s where the couple impacted on the destitute man and vice versa, because the couple had marital problems and the destitute man was able to help the couple solve their marital problems as he is very intelligent, while the couple also helped the destitute man to deal with his childhood anger, and ultimately they became one happy big family,” said Bongani Skosana.
“The moral of the story is that don’t judge a book by its cover because in any hopeless situation there is hope for recovery because this guy was impossible to live with as he would throw tantrums every now and then and people were afraid of him, but we learn that one can make an impact on a person by reaching out to them and loving them, because when you show a person some love, you can build trust with them and they start opening up,” explained Skosana.
“Some of the young boys in our programme have lots of anger issues, their teachers and parents can’t reach out to them because maybe their approach to them is a bit harsh, but we are trying to show that you can make an impact by first showing love then the issues will come out and people will be comfortable to talk about their challenges,” he said.