February 2013 – Vukuzakhe Update
Vukuzakhe sponsors promising young people to complete a tertiary education. Past recipients of this assistance are: Thokozani (Christina) Mhlongo is currently teaching Mathematics at a township school (she started her teaching career at one of Durban’s well-known Girl’s Colleges but wanted to serve people less fortunate) while studying for her Masters degree in Education. In 2013 Thokozani will be tying the knot in marriage but intends to carry on teaching. Motlatsi Molefe is one of our great success stories. Firstly, he obtained an Electrical Engineering degree in Cape Town, worked for a while to make enough to enrol for a B.Com degree at Rhodes University where he graduated at end 2012. He is currently running a successful business in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape. Others in the process of studying for University Degrees are: S’bongile Ngubo has completed fifteen of forty modules of a B.Ed degree from Unisa. She has a full-time teaching job in addition to which she has a job two afternoons a week at Vukuzakhe’s Dancing Pencils programme which covers her University fees. Nompumelelo Mbokazi has completed twenty modules of her B.Ed degree and is a full-time teacher at Goxhill Primary School. She has evening jobs in Vukuzakhe’s Adult Literacy Programme . She will complete 6 modules of her degree in 2013. Thabisile Ngcobo will do another 5 modules in her B.Sociology degree course in 2013. She currently teaches a Bridging Grade R class at Noah’s Ark. Phumla Ngcobo (pictured left) passed her second year in Journalism at Rhodes University in 2012 and her pass was good enough to get her into Third Year for 2013 the Rhodes Journalism faculty is very picky!. She is pictured here on a visit to Underberg recently when she and two friends enjoyed an “unforgettable” camping trip on which the other two “city-bred” girls were frightened out of their wits by strange noises in the night! Zinhle Mbanjwa is serving an internship at Underberg Primary School where she assists hostel children with homework. She is enrolled for 2013 at UNISA University. Not all Vukuzakhe’s bursary students are following University courses. Dumisani Kheswa supported by Vukuzakhe,matriculated at Kwamvimbela High in 2012 – despite having to live on his own for the 2011 and 2012 years. We found him a job with a Tractor and Farm Equipment maintenance operation “to see if he had aptitude.” The owner of the business phoned Pierre after two weeks – “I want this guy, he’s good!” So for 2013 he has been enrolled at a Further Education & Training College in Pietermaritzburg to pursue a Motor Mechanics course. Daniel Mbanjwa, who completed an FET Plumber’s Course, is employed on a housing project in our District, responsible for roofing of 500 sub-economic housing units. Not all our sponsored students are in tertiary institutions yet. This is Musa Thubakgale (right), a Grade 12 student at Faithway College who was made a Prefect this year. And in Junior School (Underberg Primary) we have: Malibongwe Majosi who comes from UMqatsheni , boards in thehostel and is six years old, in Grade 1 this year. His ambition is to be a policeman. In Grade 2 is Bongeka Mbanjwa from Kilmun, living in the hostel during the week. She loves Maths and Reading, went on a group hike up Hlogoma Mountain last year and hopes one day to be a teacher. 11 year-old Thor Mkhize is also in hostel, and is in Grade 4. Asked about sport, she says “I have won in tennis, I was the first Junior Girl and I would like to play for South Africa one day. I also swim...
Read MoreDecember 2012 – Vukuzakhe Update
To our funders, well-wishers and friends, This will be our last Newsletter for 2012. We at Vukuzakhe Projects wish you all a blessed and joyful Christmas and a New Year in which a measure of prosperity will return. The tiny girl sitting in the bright red igloo is Xolisiwe Mbedlana and she is seven years old. She was born very prematurely and her mother, a teenager, abandoned her. Sister Abigail Nhleko took her under her wing. At the time, doctors said that Xolisiwe would never talk and would be little more than a burden all her life. Next year Xolisiwe will be in Grade ‘R’ at Noah’s Ark and learning to write. She can count. She talks. She sings like a nightingale. And she laughs! Xoli (as she is known) has many friends at Noah’s Ark and is much loved. Here in South Africa our economy has followed those of most other countries – in the wake of a weakening currency and rising oil prices, we have seen our fuel prices more than double this year. Our economy is further assailed by labour unrest (and events unfolding around Marikana), which spread from mines to transport and then to the Western Cape’s wines and fresh produce. The queue of people at our food distribution points run by the local churches get longer and we see new faces every week – but praise the Lord that we still have food to distribute! This year Pierre went to the Central Drakensberg by invitation to a conference where he received the Premier’s Award at the Board of Health Funders Conference. Several organisations were short-listed but Vukuzakhe won because of the scope of its involvement – for which various Funders awarded the Project R45000. More importantly, we have a commitment from a major supplier to conduct Optometric Evaluation at schools we nominate. VUKUZAKHE’S focus is on EDUCATION, believing as we do that it is the key element in the upliftment of formerly disadvantaged people. These Programmes are: FARM FAMILY LITERACY which includes the Township groups meeting in the Congregational Church Hall and Jabulani Community Hall twice weekly and regularly reaches 62 adults. Let the facilitators tell their story: Sbongile Ngcobo writes: “We teach them to write their names, complete bank forms to deposit and withdraw money, complete registration forms for their children. And lately they have been learning to read their children’s school books and can read stories to them. We teach them a lot about the importance of clean water and the various diseases that affect us in our country – how to protect themselves against such diseases. There is a crisis in our country of child abuse and we teach them how to protect their children, what signs of abuse to look for and what to do if they think their child may be abused. Our Department of Social Development runs a project called sukuma sakhe and the departments of Education, Home Affairs and Health are a part of it. We encourage our adults to register, obtain their Identity Documents and register for their pensions and social grants. We encourage them to go to the Clinic to check their status so that they can get help before they get sick.” Nompumulelo Nyati also runs an Adult Literacy Group. She tells us about her group: “Some of our Group complained that they cannot see well, so Pierre organised tests and spectacles for them. We are using a book called Advanced English – it teaches them things they need to know in their daily lives with topics like Town, The House, The Kitchen. They...
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