Audience reached: 40 AGYW from Unolali Concepts, 15 ABYM, 12 youth, parents, community stakeholders.

Partners: Iplaas Elihle Lamathambo, iPhehlo lama- Dlophe, Traditional Leaders (5 people) and Religious Leaders (5 people).

#UnesidukoNjeUnetyala

7 Days of Mentorship. Healing. Learning. Awakening. Praying

Unolali Concepts, in partnership with Iplaas Elihle Lamathambo (a training institution for African Indigenous Knowledge, Culture, Customs, Lifestyle, Rites of Passage), hosted a 7-day camp that brought together:

✨ 20 Adolescent Girls & Young Women (AGYW)

✨ 5 Maiden Women

✨ 7 Young Men and Kumkan’ Tyhilolezizwe

We held sacred and a safe space for Ibuyambo, a call back home to self, and for the ancestral technologies embedded in our DNA as Africans and in Ubugqirha (this is part and parcel of having a clan name). This was not just a camp. It was a radical return home to ourselves. A remembering. A reawakening. We mentored, we learned, connected, and we resurrected what colonization worked so hard to erase.

Ibuyambo is not a hashtag. It’s not a buzzword or lip service. It’s a living, breathing revolution that begins on the ground, in the soil of who we are.

The war on identity, the deception that convinces us to shrink into imported definitions of self: it ends here. Our knowledge systems don’t fit into Euro-Western research frameworks because we've always been the standard they couldn’t "figure out," so they demonised our ways of being, reducing our complexity to pathology.

We are the past, present, and future, all at once. Awake and dreaming. Rooted and rising. It’s time for a New Decolonial Curriculum Resource; one that begins within, one that remembers our ways, honours our knowing, and teaches us to walk forward looking backward.

Preservation and empowerment require awareness: Unesiduko nje unetyala

📍 Idutywa, Mbhashe Local Municipality

Unolali Concepts was honoured to take part in this powerful gathering of traditional leaders, government, civil society, faith-based groups, and youth, all committed to restoring the moral fabric of our communities. We had 15 Leadership Network members attend this gathering.

As Her Voice Fund Grantees and custodians of indigenous knowledge systems, we uplift AGYW voices while bridging tradition and modern rights-based approaches.

Why this matters to us:

• Reclaiming African values in healing and accountability

• Creating safe spaces for AGYW to lead and thrive

• Grounding youth rights in culture, character, and community

Who’s in the room:

DRDAR, COGTA, Office of the Premier, SAPS, DSD, SASSA, Home Affairs, Traditional & Faith Leaders, Civil Society, AGYW, and Parents.

🗓️ Dates:

18–21 September 2025 – Cultural Camp & Ceremony Day (Itheko).

📍 Venue:

Nqadu Great Place, Eastern Cape

Inkciyo: Xhosa Heritage Camp & Cultural Rites of Passage (Heritage for Gender Equality)

A transformative cultural camp and heritage festival for 1,000+ AGYW and their communities (including parents, youth, and traditional leaders) at Nqadu Great Place (18–21 September 2025). This programme revives Xhosa rites of passage within gender-responsive, consent-based frameworks, empowering young women and their communities to reclaim identity, resist harmful norms, and participate fully in cultural dignity and leadership.

This isn’t just a game. It’s a community movement.

🔹 Sport + Culture as tools for youth empowerment

🔹 Positive Masculinity for ABYM

🔹 Safe Platforms for AGYW to lead and thrive

🔹 Pad Drive to support dignity in young girls

🔹 Law Enforcement & Health Teams advocating for safer, healthier communities

🔹 Parents, Traditional Leaders & Elders offering indigenous knowledge systems, wisdom and support for healthier lifestyles

🔹 Community Members showing up in unity and strength

Together, we’re driving change, honouring heritage, and standing for Nation that values its daughters and sons equally.

This tournament is part of a broader journey: preserving safe spaces for AGYW, ABYM and their communities, shifting gender norms, and ensuring that no young person is left behind.

📍 Theme: Promote gender equality and transform deeply held gender-based norms and practices to improve the community and social environment for AGYW to exercise their autonomy and rights

🗓️ Date: 20February 2026

📍 Venue: Sinovuyo High School

Unolali Concepts launched KETHA (Choose) as a community-anchored information bridge ensuring AGYW and ABYM have real-time access to SRHR, health, emergency, and safety information. The activation engaged AGYW, ABYM, parents, and

teachers in a structured commitment session focused on responsible decision-making as learners transition into adulthood and increased independence.

KETHA recognises that transforming gender norms requires the inclusion of both girls and boys. The session addressed consent, substance abuse, psychosocial health, dignity, accountability, and informed life choices, positioning autonomy as responsibility, not rebellion.

🔹 African-first, culturally grounded SRHR and safety messaging

🔹 Inclusion of ABYM in conversations on consent, accountability & positive masculinity

🔹 Identification of peer-trusted KETHA Champions

🔹 Parent engagement to reduce stigma and strengthen communication

🔹 School collaboration to support referral and protection pathways

🔹 Mapping of local service access points (clinics, SAPS GBV desks, social workers, emergency services)

🔹 WhatsApp-based information circulation for real-time support

🔹 Anonymous Q&A platforms to protect privacy

Operating within a rural Eastern Cape context where stigma and limited service access delay help-seeking, KETHA strengthens prevention systems by embedding real-time information within trusted school and family networks.

This launch marks the beginning of a sustained 2026 rollout empowering young people to choose informed, safe, and responsible actions about their bodies, relationships, education, and futures, proactively rather than in crisis.

This platform reinforced a central ideological position of our work: Heritage is not the past. It is continuity. It is shield, pride, and future.

The engagement strengthened public alignment around cultural preservation as a living, evolving force capable of protecting young people from violence, cultural amnesia, and identity fragmentation. As a local Municipality engagement, this served as a buil-up, a strategic bridge between local governance structures and community-based cultural transformation work, ensuring that Inkciyo would not stand alone, but be rooted within broader National and stakeholder commitment.