Khulisa: My Coaching and Mentoring journey
By Lynne Frost
How it began …
My journey began 20 years ago with a call from Khulisa’s founder, Lesley Ann van Selm.
She explained that she had developed a programme to rehabilitate youthful ex-offenders; and had arranged for a pilot group of these young offenders, then inmates of Leeukop prison in Johannesburg, to be paroled into her care.
My journey began 20 years ago with a call from Khulisa’s founder, Lesley Ann van Selm.
She explained that she had developed a programme to rehabilitate youthful ex-offenders; and had arranged for a pilot group of these young offenders, then inmates of Leeukop prison in Johannesburg, to be paroled into her care.
Whilst I was filled with admiration for Lesley Ann’s latest endeavour towards improving the lives of South Africans, her next request took me somewhat by surprise.
“Please come and meet these young men,” she pleaded, “They are amazing people, and I would really like you to consider taking on three of them on as interns in your company.”
“Have you gone completely mad?” is how I recall my response!
My company was, after all, an extremely conservative recruitment and human resources firm, specialising in placing senior management and executive candidates. How on earth could I justify bringing former inmates into such a set up?
Needless to say, in her inimitable way, Lesley Ann, talked me into meeting a group of these former offenders, and, I was deeply touched and impressed by their passionate wish to make the very most of this second chance.
So that’s how three ex-offenders came to be employed as interns in my company for a period of two years, some twenty years ago.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing!
Integrating three young ex-prisoners with precious little education and no social skills into my company took a great deal of patience and effort. And I had a lot of explaining to do with my staff.
Refiloe (not her real name), a bookkeeper in my company, requested a meeting with me. She said, “My son is a good boy, he has matric, he has never done terrible things like these boys and he can’t find a job.”
She asked, “Why didn’t you give him a job instead of them?”
Refiloe asked a very good question, a hard one to answer. How could I explain my personal justification to her? I wanted her to understand that rehabilitating ex-offenders is essential if we are to prevent them from returning to crime. But how could I blame her for feeling that her son had been unfairly deprived of an opportunity?
Then there was the issue of GIRLS. Three young men in their prime deprived of female company for six years. They literally gaped and drooled at the women in my offices. And since my staff complement was predominantly female, there were many complaints.
And so the coaching, mentoring and training began. It began with the simplest things like social etiquette, and gradually moved to more complex skills and tasks. One of the boys showed great aptitude for Excel. We helped him to develop his Excel and other IT skills, and at the end of two years we placed him with our biggest client. He is now in a management role, married with three children, and has achieved the happy, successful life he craved.
The second obtained his driver’s licence and became Executive Chauffeur to the CEO of another of our clients, who in turn recognised his skills and has helped him to develop and grow both personally and professionally.
The third was a talented runner. We bought him his first pair of running shoes.
In short, each of these former inmates has created a new life for himself. And this success would not have been possible without extensive coaching, mentoring and training from both Khulisa staff and the people within my organisation.
Years later ….
Approximately 6 years ago, at a Khulisa board meeting, Lesley Ann asked me to coach, assist and mentor, Mr Moses Letsoalo, the founder of Aga Sechaba, an organisation which he created and personally funded. Moses and the Aga Sechaba team work in Atteridgeville near Pretoria where he assists young people suffering from substance addiction.
“Please come and meet these young men,” she pleaded, “They are amazing people, and I would really like you to consider taking on three of them on as interns in your company.”
“Have you gone completely mad?” is how I recall my response!
My company was, after all, an extremely conservative recruitment and human resources firm, specialising in placing senior management and executive candidates. How on earth could I justify bringing former inmates into such a set up?
Needless to say, in her inimitable way, Lesley Ann, talked me into meeting a group of these former offenders, and, I was deeply touched and impressed by their passionate wish to make the very most of this second chance.
So that’s how three ex-offenders came to be employed as interns in my company for a period of two years, some twenty years ago.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing!
Integrating three young ex-prisoners with precious little education and no social skills into my company took a great deal of patience and effort. And I had a lot of explaining to do with my staff.
Refiloe (not her real name), a bookkeeper in my company, requested a meeting with me. She said, “My son is a good boy, he has matric, he has never done terrible things like these boys and he can’t find a job.”
She asked, “Why didn’t you give him a job instead of them?”
Refiloe asked a very good question, a hard one to answer. How could I explain my personal justification to her? I wanted her to understand that rehabilitating ex-offenders is essential if we are to prevent them from returning to crime. But how could I blame her for feeling that her son had been unfairly deprived of an opportunity?
Then there was the issue of GIRLS. Three young men in their prime deprived of female company for six years. They literally gaped and drooled at the women in my offices. And since my staff complement was predominantly female, there were many complaints.
And so the coaching, mentoring and training began. It began with the simplest things like social etiquette, and gradually moved to more complex skills and tasks. One of the boys showed great aptitude for Excel. We helped him to develop his Excel and other IT skills, and at the end of two years we placed him with our biggest client. He is now in a management role, married with three children, and has achieved the happy, successful life he craved.
The second obtained his driver’s licence and became Executive Chauffeur to the CEO of another of our clients, who in turn recognised his skills and has helped him to develop and grow both personally and professionally.
The third was a talented runner. We bought him his first pair of running shoes.
In short, each of these former inmates has created a new life for himself. And this success would not have been possible without extensive coaching, mentoring and training from both Khulisa staff and the people within my organisation.
Years later ….
Approximately 6 years ago, at a Khulisa board meeting, Lesley Ann asked me to coach, assist and mentor, Mr Moses Letsoalo, the founder of Aga Sechaba, an organisation which he created and personally funded. Moses and the Aga Sechaba team work in Atteridgeville near Pretoria where he assists young people suffering from substance addiction.
Photo of Moses Letsoalo with his wife and children
Moses’ story is an exceptional one. He was born in 1978 and grew up in the deprived township of Atteridgeville through 16 years of apartheid. This is his story:
“I remember curfews, police breaking down doors into houses, and countless acts of violence that doubtlessly seriously affected my childhood development. With this background it seemed a natural progression for me to turn to crime, violence and drugs. At the age of 13 I was serving the first of 13 custodial sentences, and at 15 I joined the infamous prison gang 28”.
When he was 23 Moses began to work as a drug mule for a large syndicate based in Johannesburg. Making four to five trips a year, he thought he was living the high life. But when he was caught smuggling 60kg of Marijuana into Heathrow Airport in 2008, it was an experience that changed his life completely. He served two years in Her Majesty’s Prison, Wormwood Scrubs, where he received training and accredited qualifications in Life Skills, Health and Safety in the Workplace, and in furniture assembly.
“Two years in prison, away from my wife and infant daughter, having to deal with the heart-breaking experience of explaining on the phone why Daddy couldn’t come home, not even for a day, was what helped me finally begin to understand the damage I had done to other people’s lives.”
“I wanted to build, rather than destroy”
When he was released and returned to South Africa he was a “man on a mission” to make a genuine, positive difference in his community. Inspired by a desire to reverse his previously destructive and harmful influence, he founded an NPO called Aga Sechaba (“Build the nation”), which focuses on drug awareness campaigns.
“I believe I am living proof that crime and drugs can be beaten against all odds.”
In 2014 he was given the Most Inspiring Person Award by Common Purpose www.commonpurpose.org.za which sponsored his Leadership Course. He was also selected to represent South Africa in India, Brazil, Cuba, Israel/Palestine, Italy and Kenya on a Leaders Quest www.leadersquest.com with 120 leaders from around the world.
Suffice it to say, I was moved and inspired by Moses’ story, and by the passion and determination of the man himself, and so I agreed to Coach him on an ongoing basis to help him to bring his idea to life.
When we started our sessions together, Aga Sechaba wasn’t much more than a concept. Moses and I worked together for 4 – 5 hours per week, every week for almost a year. In addition, we communicated frequently telephonically and online. At the end of our year, Moses and I calculated that we had spent more than 300 hours together.
And, most gratifyingly, by the end of that year, Aga Sechaba, had become a reality with proper governance, offices, staff, board of directors, a clear vision and business plan, and then finally, after much discussion, mountains of paperwork and many applications, funding from the Department of Social Development.
My relationship and work with Moses inspired me to change my career direction and to become a full-time Coach. And so I undertook and completed studies to become fully accredited for this new venture and then founded Idea Alive SA www.ideaaliveSA.co.za three and a half years ago.
Moses’ story is an exceptional one. He was born in 1978 and grew up in the deprived township of Atteridgeville through 16 years of apartheid. This is his story:
“I remember curfews, police breaking down doors into houses, and countless acts of violence that doubtlessly seriously affected my childhood development. With this background it seemed a natural progression for me to turn to crime, violence and drugs. At the age of 13 I was serving the first of 13 custodial sentences, and at 15 I joined the infamous prison gang 28”.
When he was 23 Moses began to work as a drug mule for a large syndicate based in Johannesburg. Making four to five trips a year, he thought he was living the high life. But when he was caught smuggling 60kg of Marijuana into Heathrow Airport in 2008, it was an experience that changed his life completely. He served two years in Her Majesty’s Prison, Wormwood Scrubs, where he received training and accredited qualifications in Life Skills, Health and Safety in the Workplace, and in furniture assembly.
“Two years in prison, away from my wife and infant daughter, having to deal with the heart-breaking experience of explaining on the phone why Daddy couldn’t come home, not even for a day, was what helped me finally begin to understand the damage I had done to other people’s lives.”
“I wanted to build, rather than destroy”
When he was released and returned to South Africa he was a “man on a mission” to make a genuine, positive difference in his community. Inspired by a desire to reverse his previously destructive and harmful influence, he founded an NPO called Aga Sechaba (“Build the nation”), which focuses on drug awareness campaigns.
“I believe I am living proof that crime and drugs can be beaten against all odds.”
In 2014 he was given the Most Inspiring Person Award by Common Purpose www.commonpurpose.org.za which sponsored his Leadership Course. He was also selected to represent South Africa in India, Brazil, Cuba, Israel/Palestine, Italy and Kenya on a Leaders Quest www.leadersquest.com with 120 leaders from around the world.
Suffice it to say, I was moved and inspired by Moses’ story, and by the passion and determination of the man himself, and so I agreed to Coach him on an ongoing basis to help him to bring his idea to life.
When we started our sessions together, Aga Sechaba wasn’t much more than a concept. Moses and I worked together for 4 – 5 hours per week, every week for almost a year. In addition, we communicated frequently telephonically and online. At the end of our year, Moses and I calculated that we had spent more than 300 hours together.
And, most gratifyingly, by the end of that year, Aga Sechaba, had become a reality with proper governance, offices, staff, board of directors, a clear vision and business plan, and then finally, after much discussion, mountains of paperwork and many applications, funding from the Department of Social Development.
My relationship and work with Moses inspired me to change my career direction and to become a full-time Coach. And so I undertook and completed studies to become fully accredited for this new venture and then founded Idea Alive SA www.ideaaliveSA.co.za three and a half years ago.
