PhD student an Apprentesses Leadership 2015 finalist

Abstract

Zamantungwa Khumalo is a 27 year old female from the village Bergville in Woodford, KwaZulu-Natal, and is doing her PhD in Veterinary Parasitology at Ondersterpoort Campus (University of Pretoria). She is one of the Apprentesses Leadership 2015 finalists. Through collective experiences that she encountered through her academic life, she realized that the village she came from lacks the fundamental tools of life, which includes self-confidence, life skills and quality education, due to the fact that people in the community are stereotypically convinced that they are inferior, subjected to suffering and living a poor life. This lack of confidence and self-esteem has contributed to growing incidence of substance abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy and adolescence negligence; an increasing number of unemployed individuals as well as a rising HIV/AIDS incidence rate. The combination of these results has hindered socio-economic growth, as well as prevented the chance for society to attain a favorable status, which led her to form ‘I am a Future Leader’ Youth Development Programme (http://www.iamfutureleader.co.za/).