Thulani Madondo

Biography

Thulani Madondo is the co-founder and current executive director of the Kliptown Youth Program (KYP), A South African youth development organization created to help young people from the informal settlement of Kliptown and surrounding communities. KYP`s mission is to help young people move out of poverty through providing educational and mentorship support to the children and youth of Kliptown and surrounding areas. Thulani himself was born in a one room shack in Kliptown without electricity or running water, so he understands the challenges facing the youth of Kliptown. KYP aims to help these youth break the cycle of poverty that has existed in Kliptown for a long time by providing academic support and home-work assistance, computer literacy, nutrition and performing arts to 450 children and youth from the Kliptown community. Thulani served as a core member of the inaugural City Year South Africa class of 2005, he is a also a professional Soweto tourist guide and he participated in other community development programs for seven years prior to founding KYP in 2007. In 2012, Thulani was honoured as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes from a pool of 45 000 nominations coming from 100 countries. His accomplishments also earned him a Humanitarian of the Year Award from Turkey Worldwide visibility and Feather Awards Role Model of the Year in 2013. In April 2013 he was named one of the 100 World Class South Africans by City Press a South Africa publication, In June 2013, Thulani was named one of the 200 young South Africans making a difference by South Africa publication Mail & Guardian, he completed the Strategic Perspective in Non-profit Management program at the Harvard Business School in July 2013 and in 2015 he was selected into the 21 Icons Season 3.