Buhle
Hi my name is Buhle, I’m from Stellenbosch. I am 22 years old and I did my matric at Kayamandi High School in 2018. I joined Ukhanyo in 2019.
"Ukhanyo gave us a second chance, if you fail, no one wants to help you, but Ukhanyo showed us that you can believe in people"
Living in a rural area and living with siblings, sharing a room. When its time to study, I am distracted by household obligations. I don’t have my own space, my study time isn’t respected. I have to help around the house. When I tell my mom I need to study or go to the library she will tell me that I can’t because I need to look after my siblings and if I say tomorrow I’m going to attend afternoon classes, she won’t believe that its afternoon classes, she will think I’m running away from my household chores. I share a room with my two siblings and my cousin, it’s where I study, It’s very distracting.
My friend from Kuils River told me about Ukhanyo. When I failed matric, I didn’t know what I was going to do, its hard to look for a job, I felt confused. She told me about the opportunity with Ukhanyo.
For the second time around, Ukhanyo provided tutors, textbooks, stationery, calculators and paid for my transport to come to classes. It was very hard to fail, and in the rural areas if you don’t pass people look at you like you are dumb, especially all the time you take to go and study and go to the library, people say that as you making excuses because now you failed. You lose self-esteem and you lose self-confidence.
Now that I passed, my life is very nice because I have my confidence back and now I can continue to study or even find a job. I have support at home now. In the future, I plan to have my own company, an investment company, because I believe in giving back to the community like Ukhanyo gave back to me, that’s what motivated me to have this dream. Because Ukhanyo gave us a second chance, if you fail, no one wants to help you, but Ukhanyo showed us that you can believe in people.
I would say to other young people that fail matric that it’s not the end of the world, it doesn’t mean just because it didn’t go according to plan now that you should give up, it means you have to wake up and dust yourself off and go forward.
