Lead Me As I Lead You: The Movement for a Society That Takes Care of Everyone

Giving Compass' Take:

• The Lead Me As I Lead You Movement takes place in South Africa and was started by Terrence Hlatywayo (Langa) in 2005 to connect youth with service projects, leadership opportunities, and entrepreneurship. 

• How is this movement an example of successful community development? 

• Read about how some programs in South Africa are empowering young people through art. 

For Heritage Day weekend, the Lead Me As I Lead You movement was out and about cleaning up dumping sites in and around Soweto — and Global Citizen got the chance to join them.

The movement, launched by Terrence Hlatywayo (commonly known as Langa), has been running informally since 2005, and was officially founded in 2015.  The aim is to combat the challenges that South Africa’s youth face on a daily basis, and to expose them to life-changing opportunities in leadership, education, and entrepreneurship.

Through the movement, Langa also launched the "Offenders and Ex-Offenders" programme, working with the aim of rehabilitating former prisoners back into society.

Langa believes it’s important to support former prisoners in navigating their way through society again, and show them that they are still a part of the community — which is where the cleanup comes in. This time, the Mzimhlophe dumping site outside of Anchor High School was targeted, and on Saturday the five team leaders, 30 young women, and Global Citizen headed out to help tidy up.

“We want to change the way people see their community, and today was a great turnout,” said Langa. After a long, hot morning of picking up litter at the dumping sites, the teams took a short water break and walked back into the school so that the team leaders could address their teams.

The team leaders spoke on various topics, including sex, marriage, relationships, self-esteem, and health.

One of the team leaders, Mbalenhle Nduna, explained that “all five of us work closely with Langa, so that we can come up with fresh new ideas to involve our community and see how we can help them”.