Be Strong, Be Wise in South Africa

What We Do

Be Strong, Be Wise (BSBW) was founded by subject-matter expert Amy Carpenter, LCSW, in the United States in 2019. BSBW’s curriculum includes two books, a teaching manual, and dozens of interactive games, role plays, and other activities to improve relational attitudes and skills among girls and boys, both teens and young adults. The curriculum focuses on teaching young people how to create and sustain healthy relationships based on respect, communicating boundaries, understanding peer to peer safety, the dangers of pornography and so much more. Be Strong, Be Wise was adopted by several high schools, youth organizations and colleges in the US, and received significant media coverage. 

A well-established NGO in South Africa, Ubuntu Partners Trust (UPT), recognized that the program could be extremely effective in South Africa. At the invitation of UPT, Amy traveled to South Africa for a period of four months, where she taught trainings in various regions across the country, building meaningful connections that led to several school contracts within a short amount of time.

BSBW-SA is now a registered non-profit in South Africa, with several individual and NGO partnerships in place throughout the country. Seasoned staff members within each partner NGO have been trained as facilitators and have been delivering the evidence-based program in their communities for months. Amy Carpenter and Thembisile Ngcobo, Co-Directors of BSBW-SA are responsible for overseeing each of the South African Coordinators who in turn, are overseeing the groups of trained facilitators delivering the course in their respective region.