Founder of The Pink Forum Mandisa Jiyane from Soweto established the non-profit organization because she wanted to help people. The NPO that aims to help young people living in disadvantaged communities to overcome the hurdles of the lack of resources and infrastructure in schools as well as socio-economic challenges.
The organization has gone the extra mile this year and launched “Pink Rooms” at selected schools. The room is an actual revamped classroom, renovated by the organisation, where learners will be exposed to empowerment activities and skills-acquisition opportunities. One of these rooms can be found at Jiyana Secondary School, a public school located in Tembisa.
Jiyane has faced a number of challenges and one of them includes getting permission to enter the school. âIt really takes a lot to get into a school. They really have stringent policies in regards to NPOs operating at school. I have been lucky to come across principals who do understand and then relay the message to SGBs,…[normally] it would take me about 2-3 years. There are so many people who have approached me and said that they have programmes that they want to do…. but they canât tap into schools because there are so many stringent policies that donât allow us as NPO,â from Jiyane.
Initially, Jiyaneâs wanted to be a social worker but the faculty was full. She eventually studied towards a marketing qualification from Boland College in Stellenbosch. Before she started the NPO, she used to host workshops in public high schools and called them self-care and self-love workshops.
Jiyane highlighted that she came up with The Pink Forum to help deal with the broad issues that the children raised. These issues ranged from feeling secure, safe and acknowledged in the family unit. Other issues that came up were gender-based violence, disclosures around HIV and AIDS and sexual harassment.
âSo many of them would talk about so many intense issues. I would then [think] youâre telling me all these things but I how do I help you? I canât help you after [the workshop],â she said.
Jiyane works primarily with young people, Njabulo and Tebogo who mainly work with the revamping of the classrooms which are called Pink Rooms, Vuyiswa who plans events and does the communications, Aviwe, a matriculant, who helps with the social media and two social workers, Puleng and Kgomotso. The NPO recently partnered with a co-operative of social workers to help cut the referral process.
According to Jiyane, the NPO has also faced a lot of resistance. Especially from staff members at certain schools, most of whom think that she is not serious about helping due to her age.âEverything is highly political as well⊠another challenge is obviously funding. Itâs becoming quite costly to run the programmes and the vetting systems have been the biggest stumbling block,â she added.
The Pink Forum relies on donations and the money that she makes as a freelance photographer that she puts towards the programme.
