Umthombo’s new era
Umthombo Street Children, our partner in South Africa, is in an exciting era. It is one year ago that founder, Tom Hewitt (our International Director) handed over the reigns to dynamic South African social worker Mpendulo Nyembe. Umthombo’s model fuses high-intensity engagement prorgammes such as surfing, soccer and art with psychosocial support services. A year down the road we are seeing exciting new programmes targeting girls, a focus on street-based outreach, a new soccer programme, a more developed informal education programme, strengthened aftercare support, a redeveloped organisational infrastructure and a new operations manager. It’s exciting times indeed. Umthombo is the organisation that successfully challenged the the round-ups of street children in Durban by police and worked on the new policies around street children in South Africa with the national government there. it’s also known for its exciting surfing programme. However, it seems like the best days are yet to come! Well done Mpendulo and team.