Kudzai runs a day care out of her home in Cosmo City. She has two employees and 38 children there every day. Kudzai’s mentor, Karren, has also run her own day care for many years and has a good stash of toys and supplies she is no longer using.
Kudzai has some great ideas for day care programmes – so they were both happy to trade…great ideas for toys and supplies! Kudzai recently said that having Karren as her mentor has been the biggest blessing in her life this year!
“My mentor gives me a chance to be a part of the solution to my own problems”
- Handsen, New Creation Family Church entrepreneur.
The mentoring component of Paradigm Shift’s work continues to exceed expectations as mentors are coming alongside Paradigm Shift entrepreneurs in issues relating to business, family, personal and spiritual. The application is as varied as the participating mentors and entrepreneurs.
This is a South Africa e-newsletter called Mentor Moments (Issue No. 2). It is written for a South African audience, so if you are on the other side of the ocean please bear that in mind.
If you are interested in the mentoring component of Paradigm Shift’s work, then read the latest developments by clicking here or on the image below to download the Mentor Moments Issue No. 2 PDF.
“I haven’t eaten in five days.”
That is what a Paradigm Shift entrepreneur recently said to a member on our team. This is by far the exception to the rule and is not an everyday experience for us to hear such words. And maybe that is why these words are so heart-wrenching.
These words were not easily extracted from the entrepreneur either, but after much conversation and our shared friendship with one another he felt comfortable to share this very humbling aspect of his daily reality.
Maybe his story is typical and we are just learning along the way.
He’s a foreigner, from Mozambique, looking for a better life and a steady source of income to provide for his wife and three children back home. He has taken up the skill of welding, which in South Africa has many applications in both residential and commercial markets.
He wanted to head home for a week or two to see his family for the first time in months. He was waiting on full payment from a delinquent account, but nothing came in. Dejected, he had to postpone his trip and scrounged up the little he had and sent it home.
It is an honorable thing- seeing a father provide for his family even when it hurts. And for our friend, he felt the hunger pains of fatherhood.
Our natural inclination is to give. Giving is good. But within Paradigm Shift’s outreach, it would actually be detrimental for us to be seen as ones providing food and other neccessities. That is why partnering with a local church is so beneficial. The church may or may not be aware of who is truly in need, yet we can help identify those needing some much needed help.
Looking forward to the day where I can write about his flourishing business that has enabled him and his family to eat and meet some basic neccessities in their lives.
This story is to be continued…
The Paradigm Shift field team is working on developing core volunteer teams in each of our partner churches. Which means, when we grow our volunteer teams we grow the outreach and effectiveness of meeting the spiritual and economic needs of South African microentrepreneurs.
We have four main volunteer opportunities for partner churches:
Business Trainer: This person handles the facilitation of the business curriculum
Life Coach: This person handles the facilitation of the discipleship curriculum
Table Trainer: This person facilitates learning in smaller table groups
Mentor: This person enters into an organic one-on-one mentoring relationship with a specific entrepreneur
Here is the first issue of Mentoring Moments. It will be a monthly publication of what is happening within the mentoring component of Paradigm Shift’s work.
Keep in mind it is written for a South African mentors, so South African currency and English spelling takes precedence 
Click the image below or here to download
