Some journeys are not straight lines. They wind, they stall, they double back. And sometimes if you are fortunate, they bring you full circle to exactly where you were always meant to be. That is the story we celebrate today.
Infinite Family was founded in 2006 on a simple but powerful belief: that connection across distance can change a life. Since then, hundreds of young South Africans have grown up alongside their mentors through weekly mentorship sessions, forming bonds that outlast school years, outlast hardship, and outlast any obstacle the world puts in their path. We call these young people our Net Buddies. Once they finish Matric (12th grade), they go on to become Net Blazers, they name they chose to honor that they are all “blazing” new paths and new lives for themselves.. And today, two of our earliest Net Blazers step across a new threshold joining our team as full-time interns for the next 12 months.
When Monyane first joined Infinite Family on 2 February 2010, he describes his first impression as “one of pure excitement.” He had discovered, in his own words, “an extended internet family by my side.” He was a teenager from an underprivileged community who needed not just academic support, but someone to believe in the person he could become.
What he found was Barbara Scott. In Monyane’s own words: “Being matched with Barbara Scott was the greatest gift I have ever received. Coming from an underprivileged community, finding someone who understood that poverty does not define you and who loved and supported me unconditionally changed everything. I found a mother in her.”
A defining moment came in an early conversation with Barbara, when she shared words that Monyane carries to this day: You can be born into a poor family, but don’t let poverty be the centre of your universe. Turn it into a spear. Make a success out of it. Don’t be ashamed of where you come from, smile, go out there, and make yourself proud.”
Those words changed everything. From that point, Monyane says, he never wanted to miss a single video conference.
Patricia has been part of the Infinite Family story from the very beginning joining as a Net Buddy in 2006, the same year the organisation was founded. She was a quiet girl, she will tell you, who needed space to open up at her own pace. What she found was that Infinite Family gave her exactly that. In her own words, “What kept me going was that I loved both my mentors. They made me feel safe, gave me space to open up at my own pace, and never made my quiet nature weird or made me feel like I have to be too loud to be heard.”
The years that followed high school were not easy. After matric, Monyane faced the harsh realities that so many young South Africans’ encounter: the gap between school and adult life, the cost of textbooks, the weight of unaffordable fees. He was unable to collect his tertiary results on graduation day because he could not pay his final semester’s fees. But Monyane did not surrender. He completed Skills Programmes in Cabinet Making, Upholstery, and Facilitation and he reached back out to Infinite Family.
Patricia’s post high school years were not easy either. She had to learn the hard lesson that every person’s path is their own, and that “Comparison”, as Theodore Roosevelt once wrote, “is the thief of joy”. There were detours and difficult seasons. Through it all, her sister Christina was on the phone with her every single day, helping her find the next small step. And there were steady, encouraging messages from Sis Zo quiet but consistent, like a hand on her shoulder saying: keep going.
Patricia eventually found her way to studying Public Relations. As graduation approached, she reached back out to Infinite Family first for help with her CV, and second because Amy had once said: “If you ever need assistance, reach out.” Patricia had held those words quietly for years. When she finally did reach out, she found, the response was everything she’d come to associate with Infinite Family fast, warm, patient, and genuinely helpful. “Amy and Zoleka answer texts and emails no matter how busy they are. That kind of consistency is not small. It taught me that I didn’t have to carry everything alone I just had to learn to speak up.”
When Patricia was offered an internship as a Communications and Engagement Associate, the first person she told was her sister the one who had carried her financially and emotionally through the hardest years. She describes what this opportunity means to her, “For me, landing this opportunity means something I’ve been seeking for a long-time: permission to dream again.” She says she has renewed strength to keep fighting toward the life she wants, and maybe even beyond what she has imagined for herself.
Today, Monyane joins us as our Mentor Support Associate. The way he describes it says everything, “Landing this internship feels like a full-circle blessing. Infinite Family shaped the man I am today, and now I have the privilege of passing that love forward to the Net Buddies of today.”
The first person he told was his sister the one he had always promised to celebrate with on his first working day. The second was Barbara Scott, “so she would know that not a single word she shared with me was taken for granted.”
To any young person standing at the edge of uncertainty, Patricia has a message, “I want you to hear this from someone who stood exactly where you are standing. It is okay not to know. It is not okay to give up because you don’t know. Fight for yourself. Persevere. Keep pushing. The road may have detours, but you are still on it. And that matters more than you think.”
Monyane and Patricia, you have waited, worked, and walked a long road to get here. From Net Buddies to Net Blazers to colleagues: welcome home. Your voice, your experience, and your insight belong here.
Infinite Family has always been more than a programme. It is a living, growing community of people who refuse to let young people walk their hardest roads alone. Monyane and Patricia have lived that truth from the inside. Now they carry it forward.
We are proud. We are grateful. And we could not be more inspired to have you both at the table.
We try to be careful not to make judgements, either positive or negative about individual Net Buddies or Net Blazers. We don’t want to cause hurt feelings or anything that might reduce one of our teens self-confidence along the way.
👉 Want to support the next Monyane or Patricia? Get involved with Infinite Family today.
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