Net Buddies to Net Blazers to Colleagues

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. These are the jouneys 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 (12^th 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.

Patricia has been part of the Infinite Family story from the very beginning. She joined 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.”

Read the Rest of the Story

2025 Impact Results are In

Every year, we take stock of what our teens — and our global Infinite Family community — have built together. This year, the 2025 numbers tell a story we are deeply proud to share.

What our teens accomplished in 2025:

In 2025, 155 teens participated in our video mentoring program across LaunchPads in Johannesburg's Alexandra and Nkosi Haven communities, and Khayelitsha in Cape Town. Together, they completed:

🔹 6,352 video mentoring sessions 🔹 3,232 hours of homework, research, and skills development 🔹 4,730 teen-initiated activities to advance their English, education, and employment skills

Among our 14 Matriculants (12th graders), our teens achieved 9 Bachelor's degree passes, 4 Tertiary Diploma passes, and 7 distinctions. We are also supporting one Net Buddy who received a No Pass in preparing to rewrite later this year — because at Infinite Family, we don't give up.

Our teens are waiting for placements at universities and colleges across South Africa — including the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand, and many more — pursuing fields from Civil Engineering and Dental Care to Human Resources, Agriculture, and IT.

The long view:

Since 2008, 97% of all Infinite Family's mentored 12th graders have qualified for advanced education — 21% above South Africa's national rate — and 87% have earned places at top-tier universities, 27% above the national rate. 

These results don't happen by accident. They happen because our teens show up — through power outages, household responsibilities, and real adversity — and choose to invest in themselves. And they happen because a global network of Video Mentors, donors, and partners chooses to invest in them.

Resilience. Resourcefulness. Responsibility. Results.

👉 Read the full 2025 Impact Statement

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Net Buddies and Video Mentors are the heart of our Infinite Family

Click here to see the Infinite Family Anniversaries we celebrate in February.

Thank you for being our Infinite Family

"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.” ~Net Blazer Patricia

*Photos and quotes are all real Infinite Family Net Buddies. For their safety, we change the names and images to protect their identities.