Newsletter: January 2009

EDUCATION
January 2009

From the bliss of youth to the seriousness of life; especially that lived in the townships.

Your generosity over the festive season offered us many opportunities to touch lives in many meaningful ways. Siyabonga (we thank you)!

There was only a 63% national success rate for matriculants passing grade 12 in the first national examinations with the new outcomes based curriculum. Four of our youngsters passed! How fabulous is that?

All of them live in crowded mud houses that leak and we are in the throws of climate change here in KwaZulu-Natal; rain, rain and more rain with big storms! This erodes and washes away the walls as you can imagine, collapsing walls, swamping homes, making mud baths of the roads, and generally making living conditions grim.

And they study, focus, work hard and pass matric! How can we not give them scholarships to further education and training?! And your donations have allowed this….

Smange and Andile are brothers
Sbongiseni; one of 7	Ayanda lives alone

Those are ‘our’ matriculants and here are two of the gals who head orphan headed households.

Sena	Zah

Sena put her life on hold to care for her sick and dying mother and then to care for her 4 sisters and 1 cousin. She’d never seen her grade 11 year end report because she didn’t have the R130 ($18) to pay school fees. She got a glowing report with above average marks especially in her area of interest, economics and maths. She was as excited as you can imagine! One day she was in her usual routine of cleaning, washing, cooking; next day she was registering for further education in Office Administration! A few days later college began! She was so overwhelmed she was crying; of course! And she is smiling from ear to ear! When we first met it was hard to get a smile from her; now she is crocheting and taking orders, mom’s excellent teaching, and at college!

I’d discovered, whilst mentoring Andile towards realizing his dream, that the government FET (further education & training) Colleges were offering bursaries to orphans and those youngsters living with Gogos (grannies). No-one knew of this not even township school principals I spoke to?! This is a new initiative offered to those with grade 9 and higher who are non matriculants. There are 9 areas of study; over a 3 year period, learners will achieve their grade 12 and a certificate in their area of study.

A registration fee of R1, 200 ($170) is paid and R1, 000 is refunded upon bursary application.

Zah failed her matric missing maths and science. The coaching to write supplementary exams in late February and early March is non existent; no educators available. She was in a bind fearing failing again. We discussed the FET College as an option vs. repeating a year to get her matric. Needless to say she is enrolled in Office Administration as well and she and Sena, although not in the same class, have become friends and travel together. Sena will mentor Zah I am sure; and so ‘our’ families form a cohesive community; fabulous!

Well, I started with the guys, how did I get to talking about the gals first?!

Andile and I ran around from campus to campus following a trail; lots of information gathered along the way. We went through the ups and downs of possibilities and pitfalls with the motto; ‘a door closes another opens’; let’s find the open one that has your name on it! It was an intimate and delightful time spent together, times that I imagine mothers and sons share; I feel privileged at this stage of my life!

He is enrolled in an 18 month Manager’s Assistant diploma program at the FET College and is over the moon!

Smange and Sbongiseni enrolled in Human Resources at a different campus near their township. They chose this program because they could walk (45 mins each way) to College; Ukulapha can’t afford transport and we thought it a good idea the learners have some independence and participate in some way towards their opportunities.

These fellas didn’t know each other before and are now firm friends!

There are 3 semesters, each costing R3, 300 ($460). We have paid for the first semesters and hopefully fundraising whilst I’m back in Victoria covers the remainder and more.

I had a good chat with them all, discussing life, opportunity, and responsibility towards themselves, the household and the community, attitudes towards women, especially their care giver sisters, safe sex and HIV status. We are to draw up contracts of commitment and parameters towards on going funding for studies and responsibilities.

They are used to me now; ‘mouthy’ forthright Carolyn! And they know I love them, I certainly do!

Ukulapha offers hand ups vs. hand outs; working together towards realization of dreams and independence.

I nearly forgot; another huge discovery; S.A. is full of with-held information?!

Andile and Smange didn’t have their matric statements because school fees hadn’t been paid; so Andile and I went to see the school principal to pay. They couldn’t enrol at college without them. Mr. Shabalala chewed us out because the guys should have applied for fee exemption at the start of the year; really?! He told us that orphans and those living with Gogos are exempt from fees and that he informs the school kids every year to apply. I discovered this is a government initiative for all township schools; and I discovered that not all schools know about it?! I took a stack of forms and all our families are applying; Sena is handing out copies and informing the whole community! We had paid in advance for her sister and I went with her to apply for a refund; unfortunately such mentorship is needed otherwise she’d be turned away. It’s also a sweet time for bonding and healing old Apartheid wounds; liberation bound in one another……

Nomvula who heads up a family of 6, Andile and Smange are her younger brothers, put her life on hold when mom became ill and ultimately died due to XDR TB (extremely drug resistant TB), she had AIDS of course. That same year her little toddler died having caught XDR TB from mom; so very sad. And her life became raising 5 siblings in a mud house; Mantombi and Ntuthuko are the sibs I am personally sponsoring in education. BTW they are in multiracial city schools now and are ecstatic; that’s another story!

Nomvula and Ayanda want to study nursing; I am investigating nursing colleges, one for matriculants and opportunities for Nomvula who has grade 11.

Khethiwe has her matric and wants to study business administration. Hers would also be the 3 semester program and we’ll need to register her for June given that all courses were full; they take 25 per class. We have hired her here at home to help in the house and with mom as she needs her. She heads up a household of 7 boys, Sbongiseni is her brother. She is a delight to have around the house and a great help. Given that I return to Victoria early March, we need to have someone trained to help mom during my absence. She and mom get along well together.

And so it goes…..

It has and continues to be very busy.

We are also working on setting up Ukulapha college; training in Auxiliary Social Work vs. Counselling. This will best serve the community and offer opportunities towards employment; another story at another time!

You are currently supporting Ukulapha Outreach; serving the Greater Edendale Area. We offer a feeding program; education; home improvements; and personal support.

I am still mesmerized by the whole process; how the dots connect and how the process is designed somehow by divine intervention! I am learning about life, about myself, about the land of my birth, about people and hearts and souls, and growing. What I know is that my heart is open, at last, and I feel fully alive; what a joy! Another thing I know is that this is where I am meant to be; that it feels like my life is coming full circle.

What I know without a shadow of a doubt; I’d not be doing any of this if it were not for YOU! It is such a privilege to be spending your hard earned money here in the townships; thank you so very much. I appreciate your generosity and trust; this is team work for sure!