SOS Children’s Villages and Standard Chartered Bank partner to promote youth empowerment

SOS Children’s Villages and Standard Chartered Bank continue to strengthen their partnership which aims to empower youth and build their resilience.

SOS Children’s Villages is an independent, non-governmental organisation (NGO) that provides alternative care for children and youth who have lost or are at risk of losing the care of their families. With eight Children’s Villages and three Social Centres, SOS Children’s Villages in South Africa supports more than 4 000 children and youth across the provinces. This partnership period dated 2021- 2023, aims to build sustainable futures, and empower young people from marginalized communities, as key drivers of social change. This is done through psycho-social support, entrepreneurship, and youth upskilling initiatives. The partnership targets 600 young people between the ages of 16 -34, including youth with disabilities.

The youth participants from SOS Children’s Villages will benefit from youth employability skills and capacity building; digital and ICT skills training; technical-vocational skills development; entrepreneurial skills training; and leadership development programmes. In addition, a staff engagement event was held today where Standard Chartered employees had an opportunity to visit the SOS Children’s Village in Mamelodi, to interact with the staff and children, and build a vegetable garden which will contribute to the sustainability, nutrition and feeding programme of the village.

Commenting on the partnership, Nolwazi Hene, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing at Standard Chartered says, “Standard Chartered Bank’s purpose is rooted in our communities and underpinned by our brand promise to be Here for good. We believe the work that SOS Children’s Villages does adds value to the lives and wellbeing of youth in our communities, aligning with the Bank’s community investment strategy to make a positive impact in the communities where we operate.”

The project is a result of an identified need to address the problem of South Africa’s youth, who do not have stable employment opportunities or are engaged in low paying, menial or insecure jobs.

This initiative will look at empowering youth from our villages as well as from our Family Strengthening Programmes to build sustainable futures. We are very grateful to Standard Chartered Foundation for helping us to serve, and continue to serve, these future generations,” says Valerie Naicker, Head of Fund Development at SOS Children’s Villages in South Africa.