Courage Youth 2026 Expansion Story

Prevention. Intervention. Nation-Building.

Our team is working hard to start this exciting new chapter

In 2026, Courage Youth steps into a new chapter — one that feels like growth and divine alignment. Two remarkable schools, Thabiseng Primary School and Thuto Mfundo Community Center, have opened their doors to Courage Youth, ready for their learners’ lives to be transformed.

This expansion is not simply an addition of programs. It’s a commitment to shaping the future of South Africa — by nurturing children and young adults across all five dimensions of life: social, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Because while most systems teach academics only, Courage Youth understands a truth that is both simple and profound: Humans are multi-dimensional. If we teach only the mind, but neglect the heart, the body, the relationships, and the spirit, we raise incomplete citizens. But when we shape the whole person, we build a nation.

This is why 2026 is a year built on two pillars:

Prevention (starting in primary school) and Intervention (supporting young adults who were never given these tools).

Thabiseng Primary School is not just another school. It is a place that once helped raise one of Courage Youth’s own children — Wiseman Mlambo — a testimony of hope returning back to its roots. The expansion of Courage Youth into the very ground where Wiseman once found life and purpose feels nothing short of divine orchestration. God’s hand is clearly writing this story.

Thabiseng Primary School

Principal Mrs. Mtimkulu describes Thabiseng with conviction: “Our school is grounded by Christ. Our values are of God and no one else. We have declared and dedicated this school to God.” When Courage Youth arrived, she says, it was not an addition — it was an augmentation of what God had already begun.

She welcomed Courage Youth “with both hands,” calling it a blessing and hope for her children to be transformed both morally and spiritually. Since then, Courage Youth has been running assemblies, and the children of Thabiseng have been deeply moved by hearing the Word of God from people outside their usual circle — a fresh voice, a fresh fire.

Teachers have noticed the change, that learners now understand they are born for a reason, they are discovering who they are — and whose they are, they are learning how to behave in a way that reflects Christ, they are growing spiritually and morally into better citizens.

Mrs. Mtimkulu shared the challenges her school faces, disorderly learners, children who do not yet know their identity, those who don’t fully understand their purpose. But she believes wholeheartedly in the journey:

“With Courage Youth, they get to know that God loves them, that Christ died for their sins. God loves children who are purposeful, bold, courageous, who know how to carry themselves in a way that emulates Christ Jesus.”

Academics improve when behaviour improves. Behaviour improves when identity improves. Identity improves when children understand their spiritual dimension.

This is how prevention works. 

This is how a generation is shaped before the cracks form. 

This is how a nation is built from the foundation up.

Where Thabiseng represents the foundation stage, Thuto Mfundo Community Center represents the rescue stage, where Courage Youth intervenes in the lives of young adults who were never given these tools early in life.

Center manager Mr. Bheki Nkosi carries a heavy but determined heart. His center serves youth aged 15 to 40, many of whom are: academically behind, semi-illiterate, struggling with trauma, carrying the weight of mental health battles, victims of GBV, survivors of sexual violence, facing suicidal thoughts and broken self-worth.

South Africa’s crises are not statistics for him, they are faces, students. Lives hanging by threads.

He shared openly: “Mental health is the biggest challenge we face. Sexual health and GBV are destroying our young people. Suicide and abortion are real and painful issues.”

He has seen first-hand the crisis South Africa is facing,  a country known as one of the global capitals of gender-based violence.

But he has also seen hope through Courage Youth.

Through training and curriculum, he witnessed transformation, not just in students, but even among teachers: “The training impacted me… Courage Youth can change their direction and perspective. Instilling Christian values and restoring dignity, that’s what these students need.”

Many of his students were kicked out of schools because the system could not help them. They arrive hurt, hopeless, mentally exhausted. The center does what it can — but they need hope.

And for him, Courage Youth is that hope: “This partnership means a lot. Courage Youth can restore these students in all five dimensions. I want to see less dropouts. High completion rates. Better mothers, better fathers, better citizens.”

This is intervention. Stepping into brokenness with truth, support, and purpose. Showing young adults that it is not too late to rewrite their future.

Most education systems focus only on academics, but academics alone cannot protect children from challenges like HIV, GBV, mental health struggles, peer pressure, suicide, and identity confusion. Humans are multi-dimensional, and when all dimensions are developed, it leads not just to personal growth but to nation-building.

Thabiseng Primary represents prevention — building strong children early so we don’t have to repair broken adults. Thuto Mfundo Community Center represents intervention — restoring young people the system has overlooked so they can still live purposeful lives.

Together, these schools show the kind of South Africa that is possible when every dimension of a young person is strengthened.

Courage Youth proudly and joyfully welcomes Thabiseng Primary School and Thuto Mfundo Community Center into the 2026 family. We honour your courage. We honour your faith. We honour your commitment to raising a generation that will change this nation.

We step into this partnership with excitement, gratitude, and reverence for what God is doing. And we cannot wait to see where this journey will lead our country.