Kiki Rachuene

Community Youth Heroes

Nominee's Province:
Limpopo

Age:
28

Project Name/Description:
Phumelela Youth Empowerment

More info:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiki-rachuene-6836811a3

Kiki Rachuene, 28, from GaMphahlele, Limpopo, is the co- founder of the Phumelela Youth Empowerment. Her focus is to help underprivileged youth to make a meaningful impact in life. Concerned about young learners who loiter the streets, Rachuene has made it her mission to keep them away from toxic street activities while helping them to improve their studies. She sees this effort as her contribution towards community upliftment. “I try to instil in them the value of education, which is a shield against poverty,” says Rachuene. “Poverty is one of the main contributors to drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence and mental health problems.” Rachuene also contributes to the well-being of the underprivileged youth who lack basic resources such as school uniforms, food and as well as sanitary towels. She also receives donations in the form of school shoes, which some of the children need desperately. Her love for community development could be traced back to 2014. She volunteered to work for LoveLife, a youth focused HIV prevention initiative based at the local Mashite clinic. Later in 2018, while studying for a qualification in chemical plant operations at the Capricorn TVET College, she and two classmates, Mathapelo Seritshane and Lethabo Mashego, formed Phumelela Youth with a focus to enhancing after-school programmes such as dancing and singing. In addition, the programme has an element in it that helps learners with homework and career guidance for learners in higher grades. On the negative side, Rachuene was confronted with the real problem of lack of accommodation. She had to struggle to find a room to rent. However, this did not damper her spirit. She continued to soldier on to help learners make progress in their studies. Sadly, though, the advent of Covid-19 impacted badly on the project. Its activities had to close because of the restrictions imposed by the government and the department of health. Despite this setback, Rachuene continued helping individual kids with their homework.