Cause Index

EDUCATION OF HOPE AFRICA

Founded in 2017, Education of Hope Africa is a South African registered and indigenous Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) offering a number of social and economic strengthening evidenced-based youth and women interventions backed by research. Education of Hope Africa offers these specific interventions with a focus on GBV, HIV Orphaned, Abuse, Vulnerable Children and Youth (OVC&Y) and women in excluded marginalised communities. Education of Hope Africa believes every person, be it a child, an adolescent, youth or elderly person deserves a bright and economically secured future. Our work involves empowering every child, every OVC, young person and women in our care and programming focus, every day to give them a healthy start in life through the opportunity to learn, earn and be socially protection from vulnerabilities and anticipated erosion of assets that are not future proofed. When social, economic or financial crisis strikes the most vulnerable suffer. Education of Hope Africa are always among the very first to respond and the last to leave in those difficult settings and circumstances. We ensure that the vulnerable and marginalised people’s voices are heard and their unique needs fully met. We practically deliver lasting results for hundreds of thousands nationally of excluded people, including those hardest to reach- by doing whatever it practically takes for the marginalised and excluded. Across our community portfolio and in all our programming Education of Hope Africa actively takes a rigorous and evidence-based approach in providing youth and women interventions, adapting these to local contexts and labour market conditions through research and data-driven solutions which take into account social and cultural conditions. We monitor outcomes and generate evidence that allows our approaches to be continuously improved, adapted and brought to scale.
For over 3 years now and working with and through key partners for critical collaboration, Education of Hope Africa has led youth and women evidence-based economic strengthening programmes at district, provincial and national level and settings be it in South Africa, Southern Africa or the rest of the continent. Education of Hope Africa programmes support youth to successfully transition to decent livelihoods and work and reach their full potential. We work across the country to help deprived and at-risk adolescents, youth and women to fully develop their self-esteem, capabilities, connecting to opportunities and networks need to succeed in life. Broadly we help in-school and out-of-school youth to learn about skills they need while at school and even much later in life thereby transitioning youth to make positive health outcomes and choices, save money they need for furthering education or other opportunities like self-employment (in starting sustainable small businesses), find safe and decent livelihoods etc. Education of Hope Africa provides a combination of HIV prevention education, financial literacy, employability, vocational and entrepreneurship and development finance and enterprise development skills training.

As the lockdown eased, we have devoted our energy to uplifting adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in our community through education campaigns around HIV / Aids, STIs, GBV and Abuse, as well as providing young women with sanitary pads so that they will not miss school during their menstruation. We will also give all our participants hand sanitizers and face cloth masks during our campaigns, to be used in their households as many adolescent girls and young women don’t have access to these very important hygiene products during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since June 2020, we have distributed food groceries and sanitary products to vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in the townships and informal settlements. We also support adolescent girls and women who are on HIV treatment with food groceries, as they can’t take medication on an empty stomach and assist with collection of ART medication at the local clinics, as well as provide education on the importance of adhering to ART treatment.
At Education of Hope Africa (EOHA), we reflect on the diverse needs of women, including adolescent girls, women with lower levels of education and key populations, who have often been neglected in contraceptive and broader sexual and reproductive health and rights programming. Our new approach means more contraceptive choices, additional HIV prevention choices and complementary community activities beyond healthcare facilities.
Education of Hope Africa ensures the utmost engagement and involvement of youth throughout the project cycle (strategic planning, program design, work planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation). Involving youth will give them the confidence to participate and develop their interest in being part of the solution. This, in turn, will build the cohesiveness and capacity of the community. Moreover, engaging with youth will ensure that the project strategies delivered to them are appropriate, relevant, supported and responsive to their needs. All programmes for Education of Hope Africa objectives are to build citizen capacity to promote gender equality, prevent domestic and sexual violence and reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. In this way Education of Hope Africa contributes to the development of societies in which men, women, youth and children can enjoy equitable, healthy and happy relationships that contribute to the development of just and democratic societies.