Ipeleng Mofokeng who is the founder of the Fleurhof-based Ipeleng Cares Foundation (ICF) has been nominated for a South African Heroes Awards (SAHAs) under youth development.
ICF is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes schools and community safety with its primary focus on bullying and youth empowerment, and skills development.
Ipeleng has almost 20 years’ experience working with the youth in both her professional background as a former lecturer and her philanthropy experience.
She embarked on her first high school brigade in partnership with St John’s Ambulance back in 2006 in Bloemfontein where she empowered the youth in first aid training and skills necessary to provide assistance in case of emergency.
According to Ipeleng, the programme also introduced many youths to healthcare professions.
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“We are celebrating people who go out of their way to make a difference in their communities.”
“These awards celebrate ordinary South Africans who are doing extraordinary things to uplift their communities,” said Amanda Matshaka who is the founder of SAHAs.
Over the past three years SAHAs have enjoyed overwhelming success with nominations coming from all provinces.
Amanda told the Record that they have had exceptional community leaders who had won the different categories of the awards – some have gone on to collaborate on projects that will further benefit their communities.
The SAHAs have eight categories:
• Youth Empowerment – uplifting young people through various programmes
• Business Empowerment – offering assistance to startups/ small businesses to help them succeed
• Specialised Care – people who take care of vulnerable groups like orphans, disabled persons, abused people, widows, homeless, etc
• Community Service – voluntary community work in different NGOs to benefit fellow community members; such as community policing forums
• Community Health – health centres initiated and run by community members as well as primary healthcare
• Rural Development – projects that uplift rural communities
• Women Empowerment – programmes meant for the upliftment and empowerment of women
• Green Award is the newly introduced award that recognises people who run projects/ programmes for environmental preservation
Candidates for the awards are chosen from and are nominated by those who benefit from the services these heroes render, or the participants can nominate themselves based on the work they are doing.
The public vote for the winners via SMS, and details on these are at www.saheroesawards.co.za.
#saheroesawards #SAHA2022 vote for your #communitybuilders SMS their names as it appear on the poster to 35959.
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