Project Report
| Aug 23, 2021
SAYes 2020 Annual Report
By Michelle Potter | Project Leader
Attached is the SAYes 2020 annual report. Lockdown meant we had to make the transition to remote mentoring, so we now have mentors from all over the globe supporting under-served young people throughout South Africa via video calls. This has been a great success, and allows us to reach more young people throughout the country,even those in more rural settings. More and more of our former mentees have reached out to us asking for mentorship, as they navigate this new way of living. Thank you for your ongoing support during this extraordinary time. We are making more matches this month, and we will continue to do so throughout the year.
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Jun 21, 2021
SAYes Alumni' submission to South African Parliament to amend the Children's Act
By Michelle Potter | Executive Director and co-founder
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Care leaver representatives from the SAYes Alumni took part in the first ever closed session with children and young people in the South African Parliament last month. Their submission was to amend the Children’s Act in favour of better support for care leavers.
They stood in the halls of power and boldly demanded “an explicit legal and policy mandate for individualized, extended care leaver support”.
Inspired by their experience with SAYes mentors, and by legislation in the UK affording care leavers with dedicated Personal Advisors until the age of 25, they proposed extending access to formal mentoring to young people in care and to care leavers throughout South Africa.
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Mar 5, 2021
Mentor Tales Part 5
By Michelle Potter | CEO
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The first time my mentee met “Lord Tirion”, he picked up a stick and shooed him away. The little pup took this as an invitation to play. My mentee was so frightened he ran and hid behind a tree. Right then I realized that my mentee had only met one kind of dog – the kind of dog people keep to guard their house and attack intruders. I sternly told the dog to sit, called my mentee over and put a treat in his hand. “What if he bites me?” he asked. “What if he likes you?” I replied. “First let him sniff your hand,” I said.
A few months later, my mentee arranged a Sports Day for all the kids at his hostel. He specifically asked me to bring Lord Tirion. He walked him onto the field and did his welcome speech. Later he took him around so that all the kids could pet and play with him. They were also scared at first but soon everybody took turns walking him even making sure that he always had water.
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