WELCOME TO #TrueCHANGE
We are a capacity building nonprofit organisation operating in South Africa
We focus on providing #TrueChange for children and youth in South Africa's townships. We help locals who are already involved in projects to provide better opportunities for future generations. Not primarily by giving them money, but instead by contributing capacity and understanding of organisational structure so that sooner rather than later they will no longer need our assistance and are instead able to support themselves as social entrepreneurs.
Contribution To Opportunities (CTO) is founded on the firm belief that communities can, and must, develop themselves from within. The opportunities are already there in the shape of community based initiatives. We simply contribute to them so they can become independent and self-sustaining projects that give back to and enrich the local area. Our vision is to see children and youth develop in a great way, in organisations with good governance and financial transparency.
What WE DO
Our mission is to recognise and invest in trustworthy pre-existing initiatives for children and youth, where we guide into sustainability. We have named the driven individuals behind every initiative for Change Agents, because it's through them that we can provide #True Change.
The pillars of the #TrueChange strategy are:
- Sustainability. We believe the Change Agents have the characteristics of drive, passion, pride and heart. We provide the platform, support and tools for the initiatives to become sustainable over time.
- Maintainability. We support our Change Agents and their initiatives to develop into a maintainable organisation with a maintainable organisational structure.
- Independency. We want our initiatives to be financially independent and that is why we guide them into their own business model to become self sustainable. When we are no longer needed we can instead focus on providing scalability to the initiatives so they can become positive role models for future projects - Mentorship!
WHY WE STEP IN
We are aware of a large need for support in initiatives started by individuals who want to build up essential foundations for children and youth in their own communities. Based on our experience and the needs in the communities, we have identified the following target groups for our involvement in projects:
- Initiatives for children. 64% of all children in South Africa live in poverty and there are far from enough places that understand the children's needs and developments . A large number of home based, unregistered preschools in the townships of South Africa lack equipment and an organisational structure. We would like to see a society where no child is left behind!
- Initiatives for Youth. Only 1 in 100 South African students graduate from university. The unemployment rate for young people in South Africa is more than 50%. Many initiatives for youth are already started but they need the right tools and a platform to succeed. We provide an understanding for social entrepreneurship: how to become a role model for others and how to increase self esteem and stimulate independence.
HOW WE SUPPORT
CTO inspires and motivates individuals to become role models in their own community, via their own initiative. Role models that take a stand against negative behaviour and provide good values in the community become an ideal for young generations, and a beacon of hope for adults.
Our Change Agents see a problem in their community but they may not have the right education, experience, skills or material needed to run the initiative successfully. We tailor our support for the need of the initiative. Our support mainly consist of education and team building, mentorship in governance, bookkeeping and administration, financial support, support for personal development and mental growth, business management and facilitation. Together with CTO the initiatives learn skills in organisational structure and social entrepreneurship which enables them in the future to train others and manage the setup, so that eventually the community can do it on their own.
HOW CTO WAS BORN
It all started in March 2014 when Sofia and Jasmina - Swedish students of the University of Karlstad working on their master thesis in working life science and visiting Cape Town for a few weeks - by chance ended up in Khayelitsha, a township with approximately two million people in the outskirts of Cape Town. Luckily they met Vivian who invited them to her home and told them about Xola Educare she had set up there and the challenges she was facing. Inspired by Vivian’s dedication and seeing an opportunity to contribute to an existing local initiative, CTO was born.