“Seeing my late brother’s child prosper and make something of his life brought me so much joy. – Aunt Glory Manzini.
Mpumalange, South Africa (26 August 2022) – When Teaman Manzini was a young man who was still reeling from the loss of both his parents, he wanted to move from Mpumalanga to Joburg in search of a job to support his younger siblings. But his aunt Glory encouraged him to instead enrol for the Good Work Foundation’s Bridging Year Academy programme, a decision she doesn’t regret.
“Teaman has always been a good child: he was respectful, listened to his elders and did as he was told. That’s why I had no worries when he joined Good Work Foundation’s digital literacy school. I knew he would work hard and make me proud,” says Glory Manzini.
Teaman is today an Open Learning Academy programme facilitator at GWF’s Hazyview Digital Learning Centre in Mpumalanga.
When Teaman was a teenager, his “Aunty Glory” worked at Londolozi Private Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, where she met Maureen Groch, a teacher and the mother of GWF founder Kate Groch.
She says, “At the time, I was working in the laundry department and was also part of a group of staff members who took sewing classes.”
The sewing classes were part of a skills project that Maureen – affectionately known as Gogo Mo – was running at the time. The project served a dual purpose: she taught Londolozi employees how to sew, and the clothes they made were donated to children in surrounding communities.
“Guests at the lodge would donate material that we would recycle to make clothes for the children,” says Glory.
“One day Gogo Mo told me they would be opening a school, the Londolozi Digital Learning Centre [the pilot project that would eventually lead to the formation of GWF in its current iteration], at the lodge to teach English and digital literacy skills to adults and the children of the employees. She asked me if I had any children who would benefit from this school. And that’s when I thought of Teaman,” Glory recalls.
She sat down with her nephew the very next day and told him about the planned school.
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He was sceptical at first because, at the time, he’d already decided he would go and find work in Joburg to help his brother and sister, an idea that Glory quickly dismissed because he was just a teenager at the time.
“I was just too afraid to have him wander off into an unknown world where I couldn’t look after him. So, I insisted he stay and persuaded him to explore the idea of attending the school by showing him the positive impact an opportunity like this could have on his life.”
After much convincing, Teaman warmed to the idea.
“I was very excited when he agreed to join the school. I told him to be on his best behaviour and not to give the facilitators any trouble.”
And so it was that the following year, in 2014, Teaman joined the recently launched Bridging Year Academy programme at the Hazyview Digital Learning Campus. Taking on board his aunt’s stern advice to focus, he passed the programme a year later and was hired by the foundation as a facilitator in 2015.
‘Everything happens for a reason’
Glory says that seeing her late brother’s child prosper and make something of his life brought her so much joy.
“As the only guardian he had left on this Earth, it was my duty to ensure he turned out all right, and he did.”
“And honestly, Teaman made it easy because he’s always been a good child. Even when I did not have money to give him for transport to attend classes, he never gave up. He pushed through until the end with his studies, and that makes me super proud.
“I’ll always be grateful for my job at Londolozi. If it weren’t for that job, my nephew wouldn’t have had the opportunities he has today. That’s why I believe everything happens for a reason. I had to be in that space at the time in order for Teaman to have a chance at a better life.”
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