{"id":8150,"date":"2013-09-10T13:18:27","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T17:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8150"},"modified":"2016-02-15T22:54:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T03:54:44","slug":"change-agent-mohapi-funky-ralethe-med-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8150","title":{"rendered":"“We are the hope of the hopeless.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mohapi<\/a>
Mohapi \u201cFunky\u201d Ralethe MEd \u201912 (center) is founder and president of The Funky Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While doing volunteer work in the South African village of Indermark, in Limpopo Province, eight years ago, Mohapi \u201cFunky\u201d Ralethe<\/b> began hearing about the HIV\/AIDS epidemic that was sweeping through his country. A quick trip to the village clinic revealed the magnitude of the problem. More than 60 percent of the people who visited the clinic were HIV positive, a proportion similar to that in other rural clinics across the country, he was told. Even more troubling: during that particular month, 22 of the 25 teenage girls who visited the clinic tested positive for HIV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told myself then, \u2018I\u2019m not going to sit around and watch while our youth are dying like this. I have to do something,\u2019\u201d Ralethe remembers.<\/p>\n

Within a year he created The Funky Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating South African youth about HIV\/AIDS and helping them steer clear of the social ills that contribute to the disease\u2019s spread: unprotected sex, alcohol and drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are disillusioned with life,\u201d Ralethe says of the children he helps. \u201cThey\u2019re hopeless. So at The Funky Foundation we say, \u2018We are the hope of the hopeless.\u2019 We show them all is not lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralethe, a physical education teacher at the American International School of Johannesburg, uses sports to get the children\u2019s attention. Two of his foundation\u2019s biggest efforts are the Funky Cups and the Funky Camps. The Cup is a yearly tournament in which 600 children from across the country compete in soccer, netball, volleyball, and running while also attending workshops on HIV prevention. Funky Cup participants who show leadership potential are also invited to attend the Funky Camps, where they learn how to educate their classmates in neighboring villages about making responsible choices and avoiding HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n

Ralethe\u2019s long-term goal is to build his own school where the focus will be on leadership development. \u201cOur communities are lacking good role models, which is why we need such a school,\u201d he said. He has already acquired the land for the school and is working to secure sponsors to help build it. (Brett Mitchell \u201909<\/b>, who founded the nonprofit Friends of Funky organization to raise money for Ralethe\u2019s foundation, is helping with this effort.)<\/p>\n

Ralethe received his master\u2019s in education through TCNJ\u2019s off-site global graduate program in 2012, and he credits the experience with helping him in his work. \u201cI learned so much that\u2019s relevant beyond the classroom,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m talking to the kids or to sponsors\u2014just for them to know that I\u2019ve got a master\u2019s degree from The College of New Jersey, it makes people start listening to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralethe said he\u2019s \u201caddicted\u201d to the work, but added that what\u2019s most important is, \u201cI think we\u2019re winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough it\u2019s on a small scale, we\u2019re increasing awareness, and making sure those who are still negative, stay negative. We make sure that we never have new cases of HIV. The kids are seeing there is a light at the end of the tunnel. They\u2019re taking good care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohapi Ralethe’s foundation is working to stop the spread of HIV\/AIDS among poor South African youth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-fall-2013"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}