A wise man once said “Life begins the moment you move out of your comfort zone” and I believe that’s when my life began in 2010 when I joined AYDF. I attended the team leaders training where our Alex team also met a team from Mamelodi Township (Pretoria).
My expectations were just to be trained on basketball. Initially, I didn’t enjoy the training being a person who was laid back, in a shell and very shy. I was challenged to come out of my comfort zone; I had never had to stand in front of people to deliver a message nor have I ever prepared a flip chart for that purpose before. I was uncomfortable, doubted myself and I Thought this is not for me; however the A YDF trainers were very supportive and motivated me to do my best. A sense of self-belief was instilled as more leadership sessions were present
I learned how to facilitate training sessions, public speaking, managing and leading people to say the least. I started to see the bigger picture of the need to transform the lives of youth in my community by encouraging them to live productive, positive and successful lives.

I was only 19 years and shy to speak to anyone let alone to speak in front of people. I believed that if I speak no one will take me seriously. During the ‘A YG’ camp I got to learn facilitation and presentation skills; and most importantly I got to understand what A YDF was all about. I was terrified when I was asked to prepare a chart in order to facilitate a module in front of other people. This was such a big challenge for me, my self-doubt came back with a vengeance,
“what if I mess up?” “What if they laugh at me?” However my team leader helped me through all this. I could not sleep that night preparing! When I finally facilitated the module the following day and received constructive feedback; for the first time in my life I felt like there are people out there who see the best in me while I saw only the worst in me. I must say through A YDF I eventually managed to see the best in me, to actually believe that I can do a lot of things; because I never thought that someone like me can be able to stand in front of people and deliver a message and for people to actually listen.