About Us

Millicent Khumalo, Mentoring Support Specialist, South Africa

“Our teens need to understand what it means to become self-reliant, and that they are planting the seeds of the future with every action they take today. “

Millicent (Milly) Khumalo joined Infinite Family in 2009 as a pioneer Net Fundi (mentoring site facilitator) at Tsogang Sechaba Community Project. As an Extended Public Works Program (EPWP) volunteer, Millicent’s strong work with the orphan and vulnerable children and families at Tsohang Sechaba earned her recognition from management, who recommended her for Infinite Family’s first Net Fundi position. Her role then was to make sure that the video chats between mentors and Net Buddies ran according to schedule, to conduct home and school visits for Net Buddies, and to communicate issues about Net Buddies’ circumstances and home environments to Infinite Family and its video mentors.

In 2012, Millicent was promoted to Mentoring Support Specialist with Infinite Family. Among the responsibilities of her role are monitoring video conferences, making sure that Net Buddies and mentors are present for their VCs, working with Net Fundis at Infinite Family’s mentoring sites to optimize support of the mentoring relationship and office administration. She describes her role as Mentor Support Specialist as “a perfect way to build on her connection with youth in the community, and to continue guiding them to become their best selves.” She loves training new Net Buddies and watching them grow more confident in themselves through mentoring.

Millicent holds a Computer Literacy Certificate (Wits) and Call Center Certificate (Cornerstone), and lives in Johannesburg with her grandmother, siblings, cousins and two sons.

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Zoleka Petse, Deputy Director of Programs, South Africa

“Madiba put it best when he said ‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. Individuals, corporations, NGO’s and governments – we all have role to play in ensuring all children have a chance at a better life.”

Zoleka Petse joined Infinite Family in 2009, and serves as its Deputy Director of Programs. As a qualified social worker, Zoleka brings several years of experience as an advocate for children’s rights and responsibilities in both the government and NGO sectors. Zoleka’s career-long commitment to issues affecting children in need of care includes important roles in educating communities about children’s rights and helping establish the Protocol for Child Protection Services for the Eastern Cape Province.

A veteran community organizer, Zoleka worked with the Gauteng Provincial government to mobilize community networks of support for children and families affected by HIV and AIDS. Along with her professional expertise in Social Work, Zoleka is experienced in management, office procedures and training.

Zoleka describes her role as Deputy Director of Programs as “the mouthpiece of all things Infinite Family in South Africa.” In short: Zoleka drives it all. She coordinates all aspects and activities pertaining to Infinite Family’s video mentoring program in South Africa, including: managing Infinite Family staff, liaising with the NGO host or school partners, representing Infinite Family to corporate partners and government officials, training of children, support staff and mentoring site facilitators (Net Fundis), and liaising with relevant stakeholders on issues affecting mentees.

Zoleka is passionate about South Africa’s youth and has dedicated her career to helping improve the condition of children most in need. She views Infinite Family as cool, modern and needed intervention that uses technology to help teens at risk of falling through the cracks get the guidance they need to set – and surpass – their goals.

Zoleka holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work from then University of Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University), a diploma in Project Management from Training and Management College and a certificate in Employee Assistance Program from the University of Pretoria.

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Christina Potsane, Mentoring Support Specialist, South Africa

“Infinite Family is a part of me, and I see myself as an example to other young women. I want them to know they have a voice in their own futures, and that having a mentor can help them to find it. THEN, I want them to shout out loud!”

Christina (Chrissy) Potsane has been a member of Infinite Family since its launch in 2006 when she was one of the first Net Buddies to be matched with a video mentor at Nkosi’s Haven. She describes her current role as Mentor Support Specialist with Infinite Family as “an amazing opportunity to help teens develop the confidence they need to really take on their futures.”

Prior to becoming a Mentor Support Specialist, Chrissy worked as a Program Assistant with Infinite Family, where she monitored video chats between Net Buddies and Mentors, engaged with the Net Fundis at the mentoring sites, and handled administrative responsibilities in support of the mentoring relationships. Along with insight and compassion for the challenges facing youth in the communities where it works, as the longest standing employee of Infinite Family, Christina brings valued perspective and institutional knowledge to her role with mentors, host partners and Net Buddies.

Christina is motivated by the role that young people can play in shaping the future of South Africa, and to raising awareness about the opportunities and responsibility that youth have to work towards a better life for all South Africans. She is especially passionate about the challenges facing girls and young women in the communities where Infinite Family works, and the importance of mentoring to empowering them. She’s proud of the distance she and her fellow Net Buddy alumni have come since they helped pilot video mentoring with Infinite Family, and inspired by every single Net Buddy who begins the mentoring journey!

Christina holds a CPR Certificate with Emergency Medical Services (EMS), a parenting Certificate with Child and Family Unit, and a Computer Literacy Certificate from Wits. As a professional ballroom dancer with FEDANSA (Federation of Dance Sport SA), she has also worked at UCS School as a dance instructor.

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The idea for Infinite Family was born three days after Amy Stokes and her husband arrived in South Africa to adopt their son from an orphanage near Johannesburg.

The year was 2003. It was less than a decade after the end of apartheid, and South Africa was at the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that had already left more parents dead and children orphaned than any other place in the world. The images of so many children filled her mind: they were the hope of the new South Africa – its promise and bright future. Without the love and protection of parents or family to guide them, she knew these children would not be able to move themselves beyond the poverty and violence that surrounded them.

Infinite Family brings skills and a new perspective of the wider world
to teens and pre-teens half a world away.

Founded in 2006, Infinite Family is a global mentoring organization dedicated to using technology to allow adults around the world share their experience and expertise where there are not enough local role models. Our volunteer Video Mentors help their mentees build resilience, resourcefulness and responsibility as they work toward economic stability and self-reliance. By providing such key resources and support networks, Infinite Family inspires and motivates teens and pre-teens to develop the confidence, skills and global worldview to build a better life. Read the full story (pdf file)

With dedicated mentors in their lives, Infinite Family’s Net Buddy mentees are transforming their lives by creating new lifelong opportunities as a result of their choices, actions and hard work during high school. After exceeding all expectations as teens, our Net Buddy mentees carry forward confidence, initiative and persistence to overcome the challenges they face as First Generation college/university students and then members of the Fourth Industrial Revolution workplace. On the other end of the connection, Infinite Family mentors report a uniquely inspiring experience that inform their global perspective and enriches their cross-cultural understanding.

Connect, Communicate, Create a Better Life

Infinite Family motivates black South African teens growing up amid township poverty and violence via real-time video mentoring to transform their lives by creating opportunities thru choices, actions and hard work during secondary school.

Through computers and the Internet, Video Mentors fill the void as “one supportive adult” when local adults are not available to support teens in turning toxic stress into lifetime resilience and strength.

Infinite Family envisions an Africa transformed by its youth, whose self-reliance leads to a better life and a stronger society.

Infinite Family’s Mission is to promote self-reliance—to augment what’s taught in the classroom and the home to help develop resilient, responsible, and resourceful students as they prepare for their lives as young adults and beyond.

Infinite Family brings additional role models, technology, and educational resources into the lives of South African teens. Infinite Family mentors help the Net Buddies build skills in five vital impact areas: communication, education, career preparation, technology literacy, and life skills. School becomes an area of their lives where their actions make a difference in a positive way, one of the few places where good decisions reduce uncertainty in their favor. Exposure to a broader range of adult experiences introduces new insights and alternative perspectives that motivate teens to make better decisions and create new opportunities, namely obtaining a tertiary education and qualifications that improve their economic situations.

Infinite Family engages teens in their own skills development processes by providing:

Access to laptops and internet connectivity via our LaunchPads (the name we have given to our computer labs),

Resources via our online platform the Ezomndeni Net (Ezomndeni is isiZulu for “everything related to family”), and
Mentoring relationships that guide and inspire hard work and skills development even in difficult times.

Video mentoring builds on the transformation that teens are naturally experiencing as they evolve from children to adults, motivating and inspiring them to invest in themselves at this critical time in ways that will pay off to build better futures. We acknowledge that teens act increasingly independent and many will only perform successfully – in school or work – if self-motivated to do so. Video mentoring provides a supportive voice of experience, understanding, and suggestions at regular touch points along the way.

By taking charge of components of their daily lives and learning how they affect their long-term circumstances, teens learn critical life skills and, over time, begin to act with a future-focused mindset. Eventually, they understand that it is their responsibility to obtain the education and skills that result in a job delivering self-reliance and economic stability.

“She helped me to be self-reliant. Indeed, I believe because of my Infinite Family mentor I succeed beyond my expectations.”
~ Net Buddy Anathi

LaunchPads

Infinite Family’s Net Buddies do homework, conduct research, and attend video mentoring sessions in our LaunchPad computer labs that resemble the real-world workplace. LaunchPads are clean, quiet, brightly lit, and safe. They are designed to inspire and encourage teens to get their work done. There are privacy booths for video mentoring sessions and open workstations for teens to do research and homework. Infinite Family maintains and updates the laptops our Net Buddies use, as well as access to high-speed internet connections via three (3) South African corporate partners. In addition, our students are surrounded by visual aids that simplify critical rules and guides in English and math.

The Ezomndeni Net

Infinite Family’s Ezomndeni Net (aka “EZNet”) is our safe, secure online platform through which Net Buddies communicate with their Video Mentors, staff and each other.

As we learn from our Net Buddies and Video Mentors what they need to keep building skills, we add them to the EZNet’s Resource area for access by all members at any time. Current resources include:

Relationships

According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, “The single most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult.”

The primary source of support for Net Buddies is their relationship with their Video Mentor, through their weekly video conversations (VCs). Having the individual attention of a caring adult who lives outside their community provides a wealth of support they may otherwise be unable to access:

Shared experience and expertise related to careers and life that encourages and motivates them to tackle daily, weekly and ongoing challenges;

Validation that they matter and can succeed;

Trusted source of advice and guidance in communities where asking parents personal questions is not culturally acceptable, and who won’t “share their business” throughout the community;

Opportunity to improve English by simultaneously seeing, hearing, speaking, reading and writing it in a relaxed, unpressured, and fun manner; and

Someone who knows them well and can see the signs when they may need additional support.

Video Mentors help teens to build skills and develop habits that are beneficial in the work world. The first being an improvement in their ability to communicate effectively in English, which has a rapid impact on their performance in class: As their understanding improves, so does their school work and they begin to participate in class. This inevitably results in more positive attention from their teachers and creates a positive cycle where the student’s self-directed actions deliver improved results, build confidence and create momentum to continue.

One of the most liberating realizations for Black South African teens is that successful adults aren’t born knowing how to succeed or given the secrets along the way – that to be successful, most adults have to work very hard for a very long time, they stumble repeatedly, and often fail more than once. It is also reassuring for many Black South African teens to realize that they are not unique in their early life challenges and to see others who have overcome adversity, not in a glamorous stroke of lucky success but through step-by-step, day after day, year after year planning, goal setting, and hard work. When they hear stories of how their Video Mentors overcame hardships or bounced back from mistakes, they realize that they too can do the same, step by step.

This is the moment that changes the rest of their lives: achieving a Bachelor’s or Diploma qualification on their matric exam, after being told countless times they could not do so, they now know that if they work hard and with persistence, they can achieve or obtain what others say they cannot.

This earned success is what sticks with them through the trials and challenges they will face as they fight for their tertiary qualifications and they are more likely to eventually succeed when so many other first generation college and university students do not finish their post-secondary studies. Theirs will not be a straight path. But our alumni already know this and they have the resilience, resourcefulness and responsibility to push through, because they know that is what it takes for most people, everywhere to succeed.

Programme Evaluation

A critical part of our programme model is the monthly Net Buddy Performance Report. Fulfilling the required performance activities reinforces good habits, hard skills, and the attributes and values that our Net Buddy mentees are developing with their Video Mentors in preparation for the 21st-century workplace. More information about the Net Buddy