Tsietsi Ngobese
Nominee's Province:
Gauteng
Age:
32
Project Name/Description:
When Tsietsi Ngobese matriculated in 2012, only 2% of the learners in his Katlehong class passed mathematics; he was one of them. This was thanks to an NGO that had selected him to be part of a maths improvement initiative. This intervention saw him go on to study actuarial science at the University of the Free State. Nearly a decade later, Tsietsi has begun a domino chain of positivity which spreads across the country as he pays it forward and trains the next generation of township and rural mathematics whiz kids. “In 2013, I started giving back by adopting a school and offering free extra mathematics classes to children in township schools. I saw myself in them, and I saw that the same problem was repeating itself year on year,” he says. His NPO, Wesolve4x, offers weekly, free Saturday classes; the NPO also offers classes to parents so that they learn maths at the same level as their children – to ensure that learning continues at home. Wesolve4x has now adopted an additional 33 rural schools in the Eastern Cape and, apart from the maths tutoring, has started a toilet paper manufacturing business to fund building safe pit toilets and help pay off historic student debt. “When I went to those schools I saw the most awful toilets and was traumatised when I had to save a learner who fell into one,” he says. “By selling the toilet tissue, the community can get involved in the solution.”
