On this Youth Day 2019, SALO remembers…

On this Youth Day 2019, SALO remembers the late Ms Lineo Chabana, an outstanding young woman whose tragic early death cut short a promising career in international relations. Lineo joined SALO as an intern in 2015 and later became a researcher for SALO’s Pretoria Office until 2016. At the time of her passing she was employed as a researcher at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) policy research and analysis unit (PRAU).

She was awarded a Masters in International Relations (posthumously) at the University of Pretoria with a dissertation on SA’s implementation of UNSCR1325 in Africa since 1994, which she had completed in record time while holding down a full time job at DIRCO, just before she died. She was one of the graduates of SALO’s Youth Internship and Volunteer program meant to provide young people, especially young black women, with working experience in order to better their chances of employment elsewhere.

Study has shown that a 25 year old with a year’s employment experience is 50% more likely to get a job. The programme is in part supported by the Department of Higher Education. SALO also works with youth-based organisations and movements such as the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Congress of South African Students (COSAS), African Union Students Alliance (AUSA) and UN Students Association of South Africa (UNASA) to streamline youth involvement in all our work. Through an online publication Dialogue Online, SALO offers young people an opportunity to write and publish.