Our Success Stories of Impact

Valter Martinho Nobre graduated in Secretarial and Public Relations and English in 2014 at Young Africa Beira. He finished his internship at the Tivoli Hotel and was hired immediately after graduation as a receptionist.

Valter wanted to make a career and decided to use his savings to attend the Customs & Excise training at Young Africa in 2015. The company MSTAR SA invited him after his graduation to come to work for them as an assistant store manager. After half a year, Valter was already promoted to Manager!

Currently, Valter is enrolled in the course Accountancy and is able to pay for the education of his three little brothers too!

Edson, 22 years old, quit his study Port Management at the Catholic University of Mozambique due to financial reasons. His father pointed out to him the possibility to study at Young Africa Mozambique. Edson decided to join the training Customs & Excise and received his certificate six months later. He now works as a Customs Officer at the Harbor of Beira at Joaquim Mateus Manguaiana Limited. Edson was able to save some of his income and was able to continue his study Port Management at the University. He recently bought a piece of land, on which he wants to build his own house.

Edson: ''Many thanks to Young Africa and the teachers. I recommend all young people in Mozambique to follow a training at Young Africa.''

Esperança could not save enough money to attend University. Still eager to learn and develop, she decided to follow a training at Young Africa. She choose Human Resource Management, which she completed successfully. After training she did her three months internship at the Municipal Council of Beira and was hired immediately after her internship period as Head of the Secretariat!

Her younger sister can attend school as well now. Esperança: ''I can't find the words to thank Young Africa. I ask myself sometimes what would have become of my life, if I couldn't receive the training as I did. It changed my life, as well as that of my little sister.''

''I never thought I could be someone in life, I thank Young Africa for empowering me and bringing the best out of me'' says Miriam Chinyani (22years old). Miriam Chinyani is one of the many young people whose lives were changed through the holistic empowerment at Young Africa.

Miriam was just like any other girl when in 2011 after she passed only 2 subjects at Ordinary Level and could not proceed to higher education or secure employment. Being the first born in a family of 3, headed by her single mother who was struggling to put food on the table, Miriam had no option than to start buying and selling (cross border) clothing items. Life became a bitter pill to swallow for her as nothing materialised from her small business and she thought she could never make it in life. With the support of her struggling and caring mother she decided to enrol and train for catering in August 2015 at YA Chitungwiza after receiving advice from a YA past student.

Miriam is now employed with Spar Mvuma and earning a decent salary after completing part of her attachment with them. Miriam was quick to attribute her full time recruitment at Spar to good behaviour which was to a larger extent influenced by Life skills training, a component embedded in YA vocational training. Miriam claims she is now an independent empowered young girl who is now acquiring assets in her own name and is now helping her mother to take care of the family and her siblings who are at school.

Filipe Chissarucua heard about YA Beira (Mozambique) through his cousin and took a one-year mechanics course from 2012 to 2013. At the end of 2013, after doing intensive teacher training through the Mechanics Department, he began working there. Filipe now teaches practical and theory classes to Young Africa mechanics students. Filipe says, “I hope that Young Africa continues to provide training for disadvantaged young people and that the quality of teaching remains high in order to meet market demands.”

Izaquiel Jaime Mponha is a student of the Tractor Operation course at YA AgriTech (Mozambique). He's from Sofala Province - Sena. He told that he came to YA Agri-Tech because he would like to be a tractor driver. His plan at YA Agri-Tech is to get his driving license and certificate. After training he'll look for a job as an operator.

Tafadzwa Chibaringa completed a course in Motor Vehicle Mechanics and graduated from YA Chitungwiza (Zimbabwe) in 2010. He joined the Aviation Ground Services as an Assistant Mechanic in 2013. He believes that YA has equipped him with technical skills to meet his needs and the life skills needed to be a responsible man. He would like to own his own garage and be an inspiration to other young people.

They are both self-employed carpenters who run their business from Warren Park outside Harare. They both enrolled at Young Africa Zimbabwe in January 2008. At that time, they were being taken care of by a member of their family as they were both struggling financially. Initially, Kudakwashe wanted to become a mechanic, but on seeing the carpentry workshop he changed his mind and after discussing his options with his uncle, he decided carpentry was a better option as it created a better chance of making an income. Young Africa had played a huge part in the development of a skill which is now their main source of income for them and their families. They show us an impressive portfolio of the work they had completed since starting their business. There was an impressive array of cabinets, doors, wardrobes and bed frames, which was made all the more impressive by the fact that these are all made with hand tools and not machines.

Life skills and entrepreneurial classes had greatly affected their lives. They helped them to make better decisions in their everyday lives as well as in their working lives. Customer care is a crossover between both of these. They learned how to communicate in a more effective manner through life skills while they learned how to be better negotiators through entrepreneurial studies, which has had a massive impact on the success of their business. In the future, they’d love to have their own workshop and warehouse, so that they could make their own products without having to wait for orders with larger machines to help them be more efficient. You can feel the empathy that they have for the youth, as they have had the experience and understand how difficult it is for young people. They both agreed that they would love to have the resources and workload to employ young people and to give them opportunities to be resourceful and create income for their own families.

Jonathan Joseph (23) completed a five-month course in Solar Technology in 2014 at Young Africa Namibia with distinction. His dream was to build a career as entrepreneur in Solar Technology and work with Young Africa to train underprivileged young people. Having gone through an internal on-the-job teacher training programme since 2015, he is now working as a solar instructor at YA Namibia's solar department in Walvis Bay. Jonathan says, “Young Africa has really made us capable solar technicians in the Industry, skilled in the design, installation and maintenance of solar PV systems and solar water heaters. I am proud to be a fruit of Young Africa and to work with Young Africa, helping youngsters fulfil their dream like YA did for me.”