Inkululeko’s mission is to provide South African township youth with the skills, support and guidance necessary to apply, attend and succeed in university; to challenge the bigotry of low expectations for township youth; and to provide sustainable, positive change; student-by-student, generation-by-generation.
The organization is structured to be heavily woven into the local community it serves. Inkululeko works with the Grahamstown community to identify challenges and opportunities in education and works within existing frameworks and systems to address those challenges and capitalize upon those opportunities. Qualified staff with knowledge of the local culture are hired from the township to help lead key Inkululeko initiatives. The Board of Directors is made up of citizens from a wide variety of backgrounds from both the USA and South Africa. The organization also has a Board of Advisors. The Board of Advisors is made up of local South Africans familiar with the township. The Board of Advisors is tasked with providing feedback as to how we can better serve the community and continually improve our processes.
Inkululeko enjoys robust collaborations with Rhodes University Office of Community Engagement and Social Development to obtain high-quality, low-cost tutors from the School of Education to work one-on-one with Inkululeko youth. It is also collaborating with other non-profit entities in Grahamstown that work with children to share ideas, resources and insight.
Inkululeko has also collaborated extensively with Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, USA, as well as student and faculty volunteers working in Grahamstown The volunteers from universities around the world support, not supplant, staff member efforts.
