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| Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world -- Nelson Mandela |
My son, a student at St.Mary's Catholic Comprehensive School in Menston has just returned from a trip to South Afirca where he worked in one of the most deprived areas of the planet teaching children and coaching sport. The children had so little in terms of material possessions yet they were very positive and very happy striving for success. Some of them walked miles to school to obtain an education they knew would be instrumetal in gettting them out of poverty.St. Mary's work in South Africa began in 2006 when David Geldart, Assistant Headteacher was invited, as part of a Youth Sport Trust and British Council Delegation, to help develop a School Sport Partnership system, based on the UK model that St. Mary's has been so instrumental in developing. The South African system, known as the School Sport Mass Participation Programme, is currently being developed in the eighteen most deprived areas of South Africa. Mr Geldart went on to develop a specific school partnership in one of these areas with Mnyakanya High School in the remote rural and desperately deprived Nkandla region of Kwa Zulu Natal.
Mnyakanya School serves a desperately poor community. Rural and remote, the area is ravaged by HIV/Aids, with the official figure of one in three adults infected. Many children are infected and there is a high percentage of Aids orphans. My son and his colleagues visited the Aids orphanage and were moved to tears by what they saw. Many of the children lived under very difficult circumstances had little hope of progress and some wre in an incurable position. At least 20% of children in the area do not go to school because they cannot afford the £7 a year school fees, uniform and stationery. Class sizes are in excess of sixty and the school has little equipment. Unemployment in the area is in excess of 90% and at least 60% of adults are illiterate. The majority of people live in isolated clusters of round, grass roofed dwellings with most having no water or electricity.
The development of education in the area is the only hope of breaking this cycle of deprivation and all that goes with it. Mnyakanya School offers an oasis of hope to a generation of young people. Children in the area are desperate to learn and regard education as a privilege. Most children walk at least two hours to and from school each day. Clean water is a boon to them and they believe that with clean water "anything is possible"
The Principal at Mnyakanya School, Mr Lucas Dubé, made his first visit outside of South Africa to visit St. Mary’s. Following the visit, Lucas said:-
“This partnership offers the greatest hope to my community of improving the education of young people. It has the capacity to raise both aspirations and awareness. I challenge both school communities to still be working together in one hundred years time. If we achieve this, we will make such a difference to so many peoples’ lives”
Bambisanani is the Zulu word for “working hand in hand” and aptly encapsulates the partnership between the two schools. If you wish to find out more about this truly inspirational project please read.
Bambisanani: The First Five Years
By David Geldart and Duncan Baines
Which was previewed at this year's Ilkley literature festival. This is an excellent example of life changing work of which these young people should be justifiably proud.
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