• Tsakani Mkhari’s Hope Givers Foundation supports girls, boys and women while helping young people deal with life challenges and plan their futures.

• Mkhari opened a digital hub in Muhlava Village in 2023 to give community members access to information, technology and valuable digital skills.

For Tsakani Mkhari, helping people is not a hobby or something she does when she has spare time.

She believes it is her calling.

Through the Hope Givers Foundation, Mkhari has created projects aimed at helping women, girls and boys find their feet, learn new skills and face some of life’s toughest challenges.

And even when finding money to keep those projects going becomes difficult, the mother of two girls refuses to give up.

Mkhari founded Hope Givers Foundation as a non-profit company to bring different community projects under one roof.

One of them is Girls with Purpose.

The project supports women and girls with everyday challenges affecting their lives.

It also brings together women from different walks of life who can offer advice and support using their own knowledge and experience.

But Mkhari believes boys need support too.

That belief led to Raising Legends, an initiative focused on teaching communities about the importance of supporting boys and helping them grow into responsible men.

The foundation also holds an annual career expo, helping young people learn about opportunities and think about their futures.

Another initiative, Hope Givers School of Life, works with both girls and boys.

It helps young people deal with mental health struggles and cope with challenges they face in life.

Mkhari’s work has also moved into the digital world.

In 2023, she opened an information and communications technology hub in Muhlava Village outside Tzaneen.

The hub helps people in the community access information and develop digital skills.

Behind all these projects is a woman who admits that community work is not easy.

Raising money to help other people can be exhausting and frustrating.

Mkhari said she believes she would have walked away long ago if helping people was not something she felt called to do.

But she keeps pushing.

She also believes women are living through an exciting period in which they have more opportunities to compete and make their voices heard.

“We are privileged, patriarchy does not apply to us, we are able to negotiate deals as much as men,” she said.

Her message to women during Women’s Month is about taking responsibility for their own futures and refusing to accept a closed door as the end of the road.

“No one owes you anything, take advantage of the opportunities that are available,” Mkhari said.

“Do not give up, just because a door is closed, keep pushing it does not mean that it is locked.”

Her own strength, she says, comes from her faith.

Mkhari credits her mother with teaching her the importance of prayer.

“There is no day where I don’t pray and this helps me with staying on top of things, as life can be tough,” she said.

She also makes time for herself every morning before facing the demands of the day.

“I prioritise morning meditation where I remove all the distractions of the previous day.”

Mkhari is the younger sister of Given Mkhari, founder of Power FM and Capricorn FM.

But Tsakani has built her own identity through the communities and people she serves.

Her work stretches from supporting women and girls to encouraging boys, helping young people through difficult moments and giving rural communities access to digital skills.

For Mkhari, success is not only about what she can achieve for herself.

It is about using what she has to open doors for somebody else.

And when one of those doors appears closed, her own advice is clear: keep pushing because closed does not always mean locked.

Pictured above: Tsakani Mkhari, founder of Hope Givers Foundation.

Image source: Supplied