SOCIAL WORKER
Nosihle Mkhize is a 26-year-old African Zulu woman born and bred in the North of KwaZulu Natal, Nkandla. I am the third born of five siblings. I grew up in a women’s powerhouse, with my paternal grandmother, my mother, two sisters and two female cousins while my father and brother were migrant workers.
Growing up in a village with limited access to resources and faced with multiple social ills; I developed a love of being involved in my community development but could not figure out how to bring that to life. The growing need for intervention in the community encouraged me to direct my career goal to advocacy and community development. Social Work was an answer to my dreams.
I then enrolled for a Bachelor of Social Work at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2014. After obtaining my Honours degree in 2018, I relocated to Johannesburg for greener pastures. By this time I had developed even more love for community development and my wish was to wake up every day and change lives.
In 2018 I started volunteering at the organization that helps victims of abuse with first response services, TEARS Foundation. During that period, I gained an opportunity to study Introduction to Psychology at Rio Salado College in the United States; I continued a great relationship with TEARS Foundation. In my return to South Africa, I continued to work with the TEARS Foundation as an intervention Specialist. In the years I spent at the TEARS Foundation I focused more on advocating for the rights of abuse victims and providing psychological support. I developed personally and career-wise. With the exposure to working closely with activists such as Mara Glennie, Adv. Dali Mpofu, Patric Shai and others, I was able to intervene in the most prominent social ills in South Africa such as Gender Based Violence. In my journey, I worked a lot with children, women and families.
Learning about the experiences of children in the country of South Africa where they are abused every day and have limited access to justice and psycho-social support, I enrolled for studies of Law at the University of South Africa in 2021. I started focusing my career on not only victims of abuse, but children that are abused and those deliberately neglected. Children in South Africa are the most vulnerable community and my goal is to advocate for their rights, support and help them heal.
In my journey of search and hunting for growth and enhancement, I learnt about the Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA), I then sought the door to get involved as they touch the lives of children in vulnerable communities in South Africa every day.
In March 2022, I gained the opportunity to get involved with the organization, practising as a Social Worker at Kidz Clinic Boksburg. I believe I have found the home where I am able to practice my Social Work and Psychology skills, and Law in due time and to learn from the highly experienced activists within the organization. My career goal in the organization is to serve the community, provide psycho-social services and treatment to abused and vulnerable children, and contribute to serving justice to survivors of abuse to fight and prevent further abuse and fight injustices in the country of South Africa. With my life and career, I have vowed to serve the community, advocate for justice and be the change I want to see in this country.
