Adele Bruggeman

Founding Director at ActivateHer, South Africa

Growing up on and around sports fields her whole childhood Adele has always loved sports. As she got older she quickly came to find herself using the many values sports had taught her in her daily life beyond the teams and activities she had participated in, helping her to be confident in testing situations, not let challenges become major setbacks, and much more. But working in community development in South Africa, she quickly saw that these opportunities to learn and grow through sport were not accessible to most girls coming from underserved communities, and thought that this had to change. 

That’s when ActivateHer was founded in 2018. ActivateHer is a sports development initiative based in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town, South Africa. ActivateHer leverages sports as a catalyst to empower girls and young women, identifying the power of sport and play to further physical and mental development. Together, through sports and educational support, ActivateHer provides girls with tools to empower themselves and their communities, preparing them for economic independence and social resilience in life. 

Adele hopes to build a network of the next generation of young changemakers who are working in the NGO sector, and by being acknowledged as a Carolina Nyberg-Steiser bursary candidate feels that this is an exciting step in the right directions, using fundraising to leverage the power of youth to collectively transform the world. 

“Wow, what an amazing experience and honour to be accepted as a bursary winner. Not only did I meet some amazing individuals who are fundraising experts in their organisations, but I also have pages of notes from the full day of speakers I cannot wait to begin applying to our organisational fundraising strategy.”