Zinzo Tebe, Agent of Change (and Currency)

Zinzo Tebe has juggled his passions for inspiring young people in his community and numbers since graduating from high school in 2012. He’s also one of those guys that “figures things out” and never shirks from a challenge.  Over the past decade, he has flexed his entrepreneurial energy in many directions including managing one of Khayelitsha’s first café’s, starting a Saturday school to tutor 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th grades in math, science and English, then running an online literacy program in local schools – and becoming the local “IT guy” after teaching himself how to keep the administrators’ office printers and other equipment online and running strong.

The only thing it seemed he couldn’t achieve, was advancing in his formal education. It’s not that he didn’t want to. In fact, he completed two short adult development courses in Leadership and Education, but obtaining the qualifications that would allow him to really advance his career remained out of reach. Then Covid hit. The uncertainty and job losses all around him only strengthened his resolve to keep working to help support his family. Stopping work to attend college away from home just wasn’t a practical choice. Rather than waking up brimming with opportunity, Zinzo was starting to feel his world, and future beginning to shrink.

That is, until... READ MORE

Taking a Bite Out of Planned Obsolescence

Our Infinite Family came through again for African teens struggling to stay on track along the bumpy journey to put Covid behind them. Just as school was starting again full-time for all of our Net Buddies - plus afterhours classes to recoup lost lessons – Microsoft announced the upcoming sunset on the operating system that runs the majority of Infinite Family’s laptops. We’re all for progress, not so much for planned obsolescence, especially when it means replacing 80 laptops!

To gain inspiration and motivation for this big lift, we turned to our Net Buddies and some wisdom they had shared with us earlier: How do you eat an elephant? While some of us might debate the best cooking techniques or sauces, their answer was most practical: One bite at a time.

Luckily, GlobalGiving’s recent Little x Little campaign was timed perfectly to support our first “bite,” and the second and third. Thanks to our Infinite Family, we have the first 16 laptops in process for installation at our LaunchPads. It’s like Christmas in May! Thanks to you, our Net Buddies’ homework, research, English and math practice, and, of course, their very important VCs (video conversations) with their Video Mentors will be so much easier, faster and more predictable to achieve!

You can be sure these laptops will #powerup our Net Buddies work today and every day for many years to come. We appreciate your quick action and #makingadifference in our Net Buddies' daily lives!

PS. Did you miss GlobalGiving's campaign? It's never too late to replace another laptop - we have 64 more to go. 

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

Click here to see the Mentorship and Member Anniversaries we celebrate in May.

Thank you for being our Infinite Family

 "Life is like an exam, one needs to prepare oneself for anything that comes their way."   ~ Net Buddy Nyiko