I remember receiving a call from a good friend from college and he told me that he wanted to start an organization committed to helping South African college students. From that moment, I was hooked. Since then, I have seen These Numbers Have Faces grow and flourish from a simple idea into a sustainable, impacting organization that is touching many lives. I have always been impressed by the organization's focus on specific, tangible actions that create lasting change. I'm grateful to be a part of this organization.
I used to live and work in Cape Town with an organization that was involved with community development work on a small scale through training community health workers. When I moved back to the states I was looking for a way to stay involved in South Africa. These Numbers Have Faces is working in a very similar community to the one I had experience in and I appreciated their vision to find ways for the recipients of their scholarships to take ownership in their communities by giving back through financial reinvestment and community service. The organization is putting structure in place to be mentoring the youth they have in their scholarship program, so it's not just about giving money, but it has more of a relational focus which in turn makes it more sustainable. I think the most important thing the organization could move towards is putting the leadership in the hands of local South Africans so it will be run even more effectively. As they launch the Women's Empowerment campaign I'm excited to see how they expand their influence in the community by having more of a focus on bringing women into their community impact model through granting scholarships to them and plugging them in to the different facets of what is expected of those receiving scholarships.
