Not a Handout, a Hand-In: Co-Creating Change in Rural Communities | Season 2 - Episode 2
In the second episode of Ubuntu Uplift, a podcast by CivSource South Africa exploring philanthropy and its impact on young people, host Oratile Mokase sits down with Zodwa Lizzy Madonsela, Development and Partnerships Manager at Imagine Scholar, to unpack a question too often left on the city’s cutting-room floor: What does effective philanthropy look like for rural youth?
When people imagine rural South Africa, the mental slideshow is predictable: dusty roads, distant clinics, and December homecomings. What we don’t see often enough is the raw brilliance, resilience, and creative grit that live there too.
“Just because there’s a lack of resources doesn’t mean there’s a lack of potential,” Zodwa says. “We forget that talent is a resource too.”
It’s an inconvenient truth for the philanthropic world that likes its metrics neat and its impact shiny. In Nkomazi, however, transformation doesn’t come from parachute projects or urban templates. It comes from unlearning, the process of dismantling inherited limits and writing new stories about what’s possible.
Zodwa’s own journey mirrors the evolution of Imagine Scholar. She joined the organization as one of its first five students in 2010, back when the program was, in her words, “a prototype.” It was trial, error, and transformation in real time.
What began as a simple bursary concept soon morphed into something more radical: a long-term ecosystem of support that equips young people to not just access higher education but thrive in it and beyond it.
“Philanthropy can’t just be about sending young people to university,” Zodwa reflects. “If they don’t have the psychological, social, and academic tools to succeed, we’ve solved the wrong problem.”
For Imagine Scholar, empowerment isn’t an event; it’s a 16-year commitment. Students are guided from high school to university to their first job and, eventually, into entrepreneurship and community leadership.
It’s philanthropy that doesn’t just hand out bursaries but hands over belief. That doesn’t drop resources from a distance but builds relationships up close.
“We tell our students: once you join Imagine Scholar, you sign a contract with yourself,” Zodwa says. “We’ll walk with you, but you must take ownership of your journey.”
This model defies the one-directional giving that still dominates much of the philanthropic landscape. It replaces the “let me help you” impulse with a “let’s build together” ethic.
As Zodwa puts it, “How can we co-create solutions that make sense for your reality? Not programs designed in Johannesburg for problems imagined in Johannesburg.”
At the heart of this reimagined philanthropy is a simple but radical practice: show up.
Zodwa admits that early on, her biggest frustration was trying to convince potential funders, most of them based in South Africa’s metropolitan centers, to understand the model without ever seeing it in action.
Her solution? “I just started inviting them to Nkomazi,” she laughs. “You can’t write a check for something you’ve never seen.”
The results speak for themselves. Foundations like the Rest Foundation have gone beyond transactional funding to become part of the Imagine Scholar community, mentoring students, visiting programs, and joining the slow, necessary work of co-creation.
“You can’t buy buy-in,” Oratile reflects. “You have to earn it through relationship.”
Imagine Scholar’s approach reframes fundraising as community building. Each partner isn’t just a benefactor; they’re part of a collective ecosystem that believes in the students’ potential as much as the students do themselves.
It’s a reminder that philanthropy, at its best, is not about rescuing people; it’s about recognizing them. Not about “giving back,” but about giving forward in ways that shift systems, not just circumstances.
Or as Zodwa puts it, “We’re not creating dependency. We’re building agency. And that takes time, trust, and proximity.”
What Imagine Scholar and conversations like this one illuminate is that the future of African philanthropy doesn’t live in glass boardrooms or glossy reports; it’s breathing in classrooms in Nkomazi, in the courage of rural youth who dream despite the odds, and in the organizations willing to meet them where they are.
Because sometimes, the most transformative giving doesn’t happen in skyscrapers; it begins in small rooms where young people learn that their stories still matter.
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