Working together to change their part of the world
MONTECASINO – Launched in 2009, with the aim of bridging the gap between a life of mediocrity and one of fulfillment through quality educational interventions and programmes, Change the World Trust (CTW), which is based in Midrand, has proudly made it through another year and continues to strive to serve as many youths in the country as possible.
Speaking at their year-end function, held at the Southern Sun Hotel, Montecasino, founder of CTW, Jonathan Novotny explained that he was grateful that the organisation was still running, “It’s clear that we are doing something right,” he joked.
Novotny attributed the organisation’s success to partnerships with supportive staff and partners who believed in their vision, “The true determinant of success lies in the primary caregivers – when other people believe in you, you get wings,“ he said.
Wilna de Villiers, corporate affairs and investor relations manager for Datatec (a global ICT solutions and services group) explained the partnership with CTW as a leap of faith, “There was synergy between our visions, and we decided to give them a try,” she added.
De Villiers added that the decision to partner with them, had been a fruitful one. “I am astounded by the testimonials funded by Datatec, and it is phenomenal that we can make a change in people’s lives,” she said.
According to Natalie Emery, country manager of CTW, the main focus of CTW is to provide youths and high school pupils with tangible IT skills enabling them to find purposeful employment or to successfully further their education. It aim to empower educators and community leaders with the tools necessary for leading.
Testament to this vision is the 2 220 unemployed youths, high school pupils and educators who have been trained in this year.
“Our goal for the next few years is to have an even larger impact through increasing educator and community leader training by 200 percent, empowering and enabling over 75 percent of our students to find purposeful jobs and advocate for computer science to become a main subject in all schools in South Africa,” explained Emery.
Details: www.changetheworld.org.za
