Founding Managing Director: Inqubela Foundation

Nangamso Khoza sleeps for less than four hours a night. The 26-year-old from Queenstown is the founder of the Inqubela Foundation, which converts schools in developing communities into centres of academic and leadership excellence. The foundation also sets up mathematics, debating and public speaking clubs in schools, earning it the name “call centre for schools”. Khoza’s childhood was spent in township schools with no libraries or science labs and the aim of the Inqubela Foundation is to ensure that other young people have the opportunities she lacked. The foundation hosted the first Education Indaba in Bloemfontein and created the My Sister Programme to mentor and provide hygiene packs for young girls, a project that was conceived after it was discovered that a particular girl was missing school because she couldn’t afford sanitary pads. With her siblings, Khoza makes documentaries about local community heroes. She is writing a novel and learning to play the guitar. Needless to say, any more sleep would be a luxury.

— Ilham Rawoot

Twitter: @Inqubela_F Website: makoza.blogspot.com