We mentor teenage girls from marginalised communities on the Cape Flats who have limited access to opportunities. Our mentoring programme is a school-based intervention and we work closely with the principals and staff at our partner schools.

We believe that each girl has prodigious potential, but because their environment offers so many challenges, this potential all too often goes unnoticed. When confronted with some of the challenges our mentees face, including but not limited to, profound poverty; endemic gangsterism; unbridled unemployment; dysfunctional and fragmented families; and the debilitating stress associated with these challenges, one starts to appreciate the immense effort it requires for our mentees and their peers to successfully get through high school. It is quite likely that this in part, explains the shocking drop-out rate of close to 50% between grades 8 and 12.

Our programme is aimed at inspiring and equipping IseeU mentees to overcome some of these barriers to completing high school.