Angela Mkwananzi is the winner of the 2016 SASSY Youth Leadership Award and graduated from Ecole Panorama Secondary this past June. She is involved in Unified for Change, Angels for Relief Initiative and various other youth organizations, and was a speaker for Ted X. Her first name is actually Velaphi – which means “where did you come from”. 

Inspiring and motivational, Velaphi shared with us her journey from Zimbabwe, growing up with her grandparents as her father died when she was two and her mother moved to Canada. She lived with her grandparents and was well acquainted with poverty, hunger and no access to education.
 
She joined her mother in Montreal five years ago when Velaphi came to live here. It was a challenging transition and she remembers wishing she was back in Zimbabwe as it was quite overwhelming here. She took these challenges and decided to turn them into gems and went on to create many different non-profit organizations battling poverty, supporting gender equality and education. She has traveled the world serving others, taking supplies so orphans can get access to education, housing, food, etc.
 
She is off to Morocco to spend six months teaching English to children in an orphanage and then on the to the University of Cape Town for her studies. She is an amazing young speaker who has so much to offer and embraces “service above self” in a way that is truly inspiring and humbling!
 
Sponsors