Welcome Note from the Executive Director

2016 was the year I excitedly joined the JA Swaziland as the incoming Executive Director in May 2016. This therefore gave me a chance to first meet all the JA Swaziland stakeholders and reassure them that JA Swaziland was under a smooth transition and I was positively welcomed by all our stakeholders. It also meant I had to familiarize myself with the amazing work that JA Swaziland is doing in the country and also strategies on how we move forward.

I had joined JA Swaziland at a perfect time when we were a year away from reaching 10 years of existence in our country. This then presented a perfect opportunity to then start building on how we can best communicate and intensify the impact of our programs among young people. After 10 years, it is only now that most of our young people who pioneered the programs are in their 26-27 years of life. This is a period where as entrepreneurs they are just budding. This therefore meant we had to strengthen our Business Development Services Department that will be actively involved in ensuring that our alumni build sustainable enterprises.

Looking back at the year 2016, we are proud to notice a number of milestones that were achieved. In 2016 programs were successfully implemented in our in-school programs in all participating schools. A total of 46 schools participated in the Financial Literacy program reaching to over 3000 students. The JA Company Program reached out to 52 schools being received by 1241 students. A total of 59 companies were part of the Job Shadow program in 2016 and 300 students participated in the program from 24 schools. The 2016 National Expo was able to generate a total of E29 000 price money that was given to the top ten performing schools in 14 different categories. The corporate sector was really instrumental in ensuring that this price money was made available and we experienced an increase in support from the corporates in as far as the national Expo is concerned. Mjingo High School students also managed to successfully defend the regional competition title in Harare, Zimbabwe coming back home with price money amounting to E13 000. It was a truly proud moment and we continue to aspire to produce more ground-breaking businesses even this year.

Finally, 2016 presented a great opportunity to strategies on the way forward for the next financial year 2017. We aim to scale down the number of schools that we operate in to 40 schools with the intension of providing all 3 in school programs to each school thus creating the intended impact among the program participants. The Financial literacy education is to be expanded and incorporate elements such as the introduction of Tax education, formation of saving cooperatives, savings and investments. Lastly, we are working towards creating sustainability among the mini companies that young people establish by linking them to the business development services department. All this will be made possible through creating partnerships with the private sector. We urge our partners to continue their support. Lastly, I thank the Board of Directors for proving guidance and support to the running of JA Swaziland and I appreciate the JA Swaziland team for successfully implementing the 2016 JA programs.

Thank you so much!
Sboniso Madlopha. Executive Director. Junior Achievement Worldwide/Swaziland.