InnerCHANGE South Africa

Vision

We exist to incarnationally live and serve among people living with poverty in order for our communities to be transformed from the inside out. We want to follow Jesus whole-heartedly, and collaborate with Him and with our neighbours to see movements of agents of hope in Soshanguve and beyond.

Mission

As part of the body of Christ, we aim to make and develop disciples of Jesus who are also community transformation agents.

What we do:

• Apprenticeship

The team runs a 5 month apprenticeship program. This is a tangible approach  the team has adopted to the development, discipleship and equipping of local leaders. In it, our volunteers wrestle with a curricula that aims to facilitate a learning process of what it means to be a Christ like servant leader.

• After-School reading and tutoring clubs

There is a great need for educational assistance for children in the township. Our reading and tutoring clubs serve as hubs where an appetite for reading and a learning culture is forstered. Currently 

, the team runs reading and tutoring clubs in 3 neighbourhoods in the townships of Soshanguve and Eesterus. 

• Kids Clubs

Most children wander and play unsupervised during non-school hours, as their parents are often working long hours away from home. Seeing an opportunity to engage these children in positive activities and provide adult role models for them, the team reaches out to the kids by means of a kids discipleship program. In the latter, children regularly join the team in playing games, singing songs, watching movies, and engage a year long bible based discipleship curricula. Currently, the team runs 3 kids clubs in Soshanguve.

• Teenager Hangouts

The team reaches out to teenagers in the community by means of TeenAge Hangouts. The latter was fashioned for the ongoing mentorship and discipleship of kids transitioning into teenagehood from our kids clubs. Here, teenagers hangout together over games, creative arts, sleepover nights and engaged a year long bible based curricula seeking to speak to teenagehoods’ most pressing issues.

• Sisterhood and Brotherhood

The team runs a teenage girls only mentorship and discipleship program, called sisterhood. Organically, the team runs a similar program for teenage boys, called brotherhood. 

• Sports Ministry

In general, most people in the township do not have much to do outside of school or work. Basketball and other sports provide an outlet for positive activities. The team has been able to build relationships, encourage skills development, and has provided positive adult role models to young men and women through our sports programs which include Football, Basketball, Netball and volleyball.

• Performing arts

In 2017, the team observed the need to diversify its tutoring strategies. We started incorporating arts in our tutoring sessions. This led to us organising talent shows for kids who excelled at the arts aspect of our tutoring. This organically morphed into a performing arts club with aims to develop and shape character of the participants. Through the club, the team reaches out to Teens interested in arts, performance and storytelling.

• Beadworks

The team reaches out to senior citizens by means of a beadwork’s initiative. In it, they gather, create jewellery and study the Bible together.

• Community gardening and food security

The team pioneered a community gardening and food security program in Winterveldt, a neighbouring township of Soshanguve. We gathered neighbours with a passion for agriculture, and together they farm and study the Bible together. The produce from the garden is often donated to local schools, early childhood and development centres and neighbours indentified as in need of the produce.

• Computer literacy

Our team reaches out to neighbours, most of whom graduated high school but could not get accepted at university, through an accredited computer literacy program.

History

InnerCHANGE South Africa was birthed out of a NieuCommunities presence in the city of Pretoria. In 2007 a team of staff from both ministries conducted a one-week exploration in the township of Soshanguve to discern how God might use an InnerCHANGE team in this particular area and context.

Luc Kabongo, the then team leader, was part of NieuCommunities for three years and served in the community of Soshanguve along with fellow staff and apprentices. He and his wife, Petunia’s involvement there helped prepare them to pioneer an InnerCHANGE site, and they relocated with their family to Soshanguve in April 2008.