City Year

Active in her community for years, Busi Mhlanga became a founding team leader for City Year South Africa, a youth service organization, in 2005.

Mhlanga's background helps make her a powerful role model for young people. As one of eight children from a very poor family in Soweto, she recalls often going to school hungry and missing parts of the required school uniform. Her parents, both of whom are illiterate, told her that as long as she focused on her education, everything else would follow. Spurred by this conviction, Mhlanga graduated high school and completed a local government management course through the University of South Africa.

In 2000, she cofounded the Qhakaza Women's and Youth Skills Development and Empowerment Organization, where she facilitated HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programs. At the same time, she volunteered as an HIV/AIDS facilitator for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), running awareness programs in Soweto high schools. (For more on TAC, see the profile of Zackie Achmat.) In 2001, Mhlanga initiated a cleanup campaign that involved mobilizing primary school children to turn three illegal dumping sites into public parks.