About Us

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

Our team is the heart of our mission. Comprised of passionate educators, innovators, and community leaders, we are united by a shared commitment to empower youth in underserved communities. We believe in the power of collaboration and authentic empowerment, working alongside the individuals we serve to co-create sustainable solutions. With a deep understanding of the challenges our communities face, we leverage our diverse expertise to equip the next generation with the digital skills, entrepreneurial spirit, and confidence needed to overcome poverty and build brighter futures.

Our Story

Izani began in 2014 with a school club in a rural school in South Africa's Eastern Cape.

There was no plan to build an organisation. But there was a belief that, given the right space, tools and guidance, young people could discover their natural gifts and turn them into solutions that improve their lives and their communities.

So we started with what we had.

That belief led us to work with children and adults in communities across South Africa, Botswana and Cameroon between 2014 and 2018.

Working closely within these communities—and listening to people through a community visioning summit we held in Mthatha in 2018 helped us understand more clearly the challenges people wanted to solve and the opportunities they wanted to create.

This is where our work in coding, robotics and entrepreneurship began.

Over the years, the work grew to include digital skills and economic empowerment.

We learned by doing.

And as the work evolved, it became clearer that the person was the starting point.

The programmes and resources were tools, and the people the centre.

Their purpose was to help people discover what they already carried within them and give them a way to do something with it.

For more than a decade, we worked as Global Leading Light Initiatives. In 2025, we became Izani, a name that brings us back to what has always been at the heart of the work.

Today, we are more intentional about starting with the young person: their interests, their abilities and what they feel drawn to create. Our STEM and innovation programmes give them opportunities to discover and develop those abilities and use them to solve real problems around them.