Programmes Executive
Banyana Mohajane
Education is the pillar of society and in order to succeed in life, you need knowledge because knowledge is power, and no one understands this better than Banyana Mohajane.
Banyana Mohajane is the Programmes Executive for Adopt-a-School Foundation and after listening to how she responded to the questions prepared by the interns, she has an undeniable passion and love for what she does at Adopt-a-School.
Banyana started as a Project Coordinator at Adopt-a- School. From there she moved to Project Manager and now she sits at the organisation as an Executive, which she considers her biggest growth. It was humbling for her to see herself grow because she started off working in the field with different school communities across the country. The growth came because of competency, commitment, passion, being open-minded, her ability to learn, adapt and manage change. She is grateful to Adopt-a-School for affording her the opportunity to learn and grow her experience.
Being an Executive was not necessarily Banyana’s goal. Her goal was to work in communities and help develop and bring change to those communities. Her focus was on community development, rather than on a high position because when joining the Foundation, the organisation was small and had a flat structure. Growth to her was more about acquiring and learning different skills sets. She wanted to change the lives of learners who come from challenging backgrounds and afford them the opportunity to build better lives for themselves. Banyana believes that the only thing that can break the cycle of poverty, GBV and other challenges in South Africa is education.
“I saw myself changing lives through development and awareness,” she said. She wants young people to recognise the value of education.
A must-know about Banyana is that she studied education, project management and contributed to the development of the Whole School Development model, an achievement she is proud of.
Banyana is always on the road with her team, but she has other duties to perform. When it comes to balancing her workload, Banyana plans her workload for the week and tries to make provision for what she has to do for that week, whether it means she has to wake up early or finish her day late. This reflects true dedication, and we can learn from Banyana what it means to love what you do. When she has the chance though, she makes time for her personal life on weekends, spending time with her family, going to church, and trying to have some downtime. She said it is difficult to have a balance between work life and home life.
To the young people who aspire to be like Banyana, her advice is to be patient. “A career path requires patience. Be patient with the outside world and be patient with yourself. Find out what you love, take advantage of opportunities and work hard. As for the next path Banyana would like to take, she would like to be a farmer. She said that everything ends where it begun. She grew up on a farm and her father was a farmer so it would be something she would like to pursue one day. Not only will she be a farmer, but she aims to also use her farming business to educate communities about farming and as a skill to make money to provide for themselves.
Banyana has a positive outlook on life, and it is so refreshing to hear someone not only concerned about superficial aspects of life but who has a true passion and love for what they do.