The Africa Foundation (USA)
> Click here
Africa Foundation (UK)
> Click here
KWAZULU NATAL
In the sand forests and wetlands of Maputaland and northern Zululand - between the Lebombo Mountains and the Indian Ocean are some of South Africa’s finest wilderness areas and wildlife parks - and some of its poorest rural communities.
For 17 years, Africa Foundation has been working with the communities on the fringe of the Phinda Wildlife Reserve. It is here that the model for all our work in rural Africa was developed, and, thanks to the enlightened approach of our principal ecotourism partner, & Beyond and the & Beyond Foundation, it is where we have achieved the most rewarding results.
Now we are addressing four new challenges - in the Nibela, Mduku, Mnqobokazi and KwaJobe communities around Phinda
Appeals
Mduku
A new chance for handicapped children
Meet Princess Bongiwe (it’s her name - she’s not really a princess - except in spirit!)
Princess looks after 27 handicapped children at the Khulani Special School in Mduku - children who need 24-hour care and attention. She is just one of the several people who work all hours - ensuring there is a roster of voluntary “workers” to help from the community, feeding the children, bathing them when there is enough water, teaching them what little is possible, and sleeping over with them at night on mattresses laid out on the floor of the tiny building that serves as schoolroom, dining room, playroom and dormitory - and is kept spotless and perfectly organised at all times.
It is tragic to see children so afflicted simply surviving in such hopelessly inadequate surroundings - and yet this is a happy place - full of love and laughter.
“This is a shelter,” Princess Bongiwe will tell you. “I do this because I love these children - as do all the people who also help care for them. The community sees us as their mothers.” And these 27 children are just the tip of the iceberg - just a few of the 6-14 year-olds, and there are older children too, hundreds in all - that need help in these communities.
Help Africa Foundation enable Mrs Nsukwini, the community “champion” for this project, the Principal, Christiana Ngobesi and Princess Bongiwe and the team of volunteers - to build a proper boarding school for all these desperately vulnerable and needy children. They already have the land donated by the community elders, have registered the school with Department of Education and received some initial funds from the government - now what they need is the £230,000 to make it happen.
Download a print friendly Pdf of the Mduku case study
Mnqobokazi
Transforming the quality of their learning
Meet Jabulani Nxumalo - Chairman of the Mnqobokazi Community Trust - a respected leader in his community and a highly engaging and articulate individual.
Jabulani has a problem. With 3,000 children in five primary schools and one secondary school in the community, he and his fellow community leaders are deeply concerned about the quality of the education their children are getting. Despite schools that are reasonably equipped (in several cases thanks to Africa Foundation) by comparison with many others in the region, the results - especially in Maths and Science are not good.
Jabulani has investigated the problem thoroughly, even travelling to the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania to meet with Masaai community leaders to find out how they use charitable support to put their children through school and university.
His solution - a special three-year training programme for teachers and pupils in all the schools in the community - one that, based on previous experience, is confidently projected to boost pass rates in Maths and Science to above 80% across the board.
But this is a programme that cannot be undertaken piecemeal. It requires the total commitment of a team of specialised trainers, and it has to be fully funded before it can kick off. Thanks to annual rental income from the community’s ownership of the land on which the Phinda Reserve is sited, Jabulani has some funds to contribute to this project, but not enough.
Help Africa Foundation make it possible for Jabulani, his fellow community leaders and the school boards and principals of the Mnqobokazi community to introduce this invaluable programme. Help us find the £145,000 that will make this possible.
Download a print friendly Pdf of the Mnqobokazi case study
KwaJobe
Classrooms would make all the difference
Meet Mandla Molefe. He will greet you strolling through the dust of his school’s unpaved playground in his immaculate suit and tie with finely polished brown shoes. Mandla Molefe is a man of high principal - literally. He is the headmaster of the Mthambalala Secondary School in the KwaJobe community outside Phinda.
Although his calm and measured manner belies it, he is a deeply frustrated man with an infinite well of patience, for Mr Molefe is a successful teacher who has been appointed to head a school that is only half completed.
In 2007, when the department of education finally conceded that another high school was needed in the area, they managed to stretch their resources to build just four simple classrooms for some 180 children - handed over rough and unfinished. Another room, with bare plastered walls and uneven floors serves as an office for all three teachers to share with the principal.
The result is that each day, because Mr Molefe does not have the facilities to provide Grades 11 and 12, pupils who have passed Grade 10 have to walk 7 kilometres to Mabendleni High School, the community’s only other secondary school. What is worse, the Mabandleni school is hopelessly overcrowded already and desperately needs a further 13 classrooms.
Mr Molefe will tell you: “It is frustrating to see young learners who we have built up over three years not achieve their full potential. It is hard enough for them to have to walk miles to reach the other high schools, but now they must also adapt to new teachers and new surroundings.”
“Since I came here I have found that these kids really want to learn and make the most of their lives. They are fantastic - when you teach them they really respond. The problem is with the resources. We need just six furnished classrooms to provide Grade 11 and 12. That would take some pressure off Mabandleni - and with each classroom we get an additional teacher from the government - one for each 35 pupils.”
Before Mr Molefe left his teaching post to lead this new school as principal, he was achieving near 100% pass rates in Math in a region where the average pass rate had previously struggled to exceed 5%. “One of my ex-students is writing his pilot’s license this year in Pretoria. For a boy from a cattle post this is remarkable. I am a role model for these children, and it doesn’t matter how dusty my shoes get at the end of each day - I want to teach these children not to give up.”
Help Africa Foundation make it possible for Mandla Molefe at Mthambalala and his colleagues at Mabandleni to build the classrooms they need to get secondary education up to scratch in KwaJobe.
Help us provide the £145,000 that will enable him to do his job and turn out more pilots and professionals and young people who can achieve and will not give up!
Download a print friendly Pdf of the KwaJobe case study
Nibela
Making desks for local classrooms - an enterprise for education
Meet Bheki Ntuli - the & Beyond Foundation’s Senior Development Officer in Kwa-Zulu Natal. He coordinates some the most far-reaching and impressive work carried out by & Beyond Foundation with Africa Foundation’s support.
With several highly successful income generating projects up and running in his region, Bheki is working with the leaders of the Nibela community to revive a manufacturing training programme that ran out of money after the government pulled the plug on it. The programme involved training local people in wood- and metal-working to produce desks for the region’s many schools.
Now, the plan is to set this up as a cooperative business in which people are trained free of charge, but the company markets the products that they make - mainly timber and metal furniture - to cover the cost and make a profit.
Bheki is excited about what the business could achieve. “We have the premises and the tooling already in place, and there is a good potential market for these products in the region - so all we need to get the factory going is working capital to fund three trainers and the necessary materials,”
He will tell you that the possibilities for creating employment and a sustainable enterprise are extremely good should this project receive the required funding levels; “Not only will a small business have the chance to establish itself and grow, but the long-term impacts of retaining and circulating finances within the community will be felt and provide ongoing benefit to the wider community too.”
Help Bheki get this factory off the ground and prove that small manufacturing projects can make a real impact. Help Africa Foundation provide the £20,000 he needs to do it.