To honour and celebrate the youth of the Kouga region, community activist and founder of Thornhill Uprising Stars FC, Ziyanda Kilimani, is encouraging the community to nominate young entrepreneurs in the area with entries closing on May 2.
To commemorate Youth Day on June 16, Kilimani, from Thornhill, will host the first annual Kouga Youth Hustlers Awards at Mentors Country Estate.
She said she had decided to host the competition to encourage young entrepreneurs to continue creating jobs for themselves and the young people in their community who are unemployed.
“This competition aims at recognising the hard-working young people in communities who are focused on developing and uplifting their communities,” said Kilimani.
She said that young people need to be given an opportunity and a platform to share their knowledge, talent, and skills.
Despite the word “hustler” often being associated with negative connotations, she said that she has focused on the positive attributes of a hustler which she believes is a person who is aggressively hard-working and knows how to get around a problem.
“We have seen so many young people around our municipality doing amazing things with their lives. Despite our country facing high unemployment rates, these young people do not just fold their hands and do nothing. Instead, they hustle to improve their lives and the lives of those in their community,” said Kilimani.
She said that the competition has 10 awards categories which include non-profit organisation, community builder, influencer, hospitality and tourism, local clothing brand, hair and beauty, sport development, music and entertainment, small business, and agriculture.
To enter the competition, which is open to young people aged between 16 and 35 based within the region of the Kouga Municipality, nominations must be emailed to k.youthhustlersawards@gmail.com.
To qualify, nominations must include the name, surname, age, address, contact details and clear picture of the candidate.
In addition, the award category must be specified and a motivation letter of about 50 words must be submitted.
The closing date for nominations is May 2.
Kilimani said that after the closing date six judges will choose 10 qualified candidates for each category, which will be posted on the Kouga Youth Hustlers Awards Facebook page.
Kilimani said the public are encouraged to vote for their favourite candidate by liking their picture on the Kouga Youth Hustlers Awards Facebook page.
She said that the top five candidates from each category who received the most likes will be interviewed by the judges, and the winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on June 16 at Mentors Country Estate.
The awards will start at 12:00 and will feature various guest speakers and entertainment.
Tickets for the event are R200 per person which include lunch, and can be purchased by contacting Ziyanda Kilimani on 067 986 1738 or kilimaniziyanda@gmail.com.
“We plead with Kouga residents to participate in this competition by nominating young hustlers around our beautiful municipality who deserve to be recognised and celebrated for being good, hard-working hustlers,” said Kilimani.
– ISSUED BY ZIYANDA KILIMANI
