Empowering South African Youth Through Education

January in South Africa...a New Year, the start of a new school term, and time for university admissions decisions to be finalized in time for classes to begin in February.  In some ways, these weeks are a culminating moment for all that we do at The Umkhumbane Schools Project, as the learners who have come through our programming aimed at getting them into college and a bright future are finding out if the door to higher education has, in fact, been opened to them.  

We are so happy to report that Yes...the doors are opening!  Remember Sanelisiwe, one of the aspiring young researchers from our 2016 mentoring program for the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists?  She has just been accepted to study for a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Pietermaritzburg campus.  Do you recall Yanga, our young Expo investigator who researched the effect of chewing gum on concentration?  Yanga is headed to Wits University to study for a BSc in Mechanical Engineering.  And how about Bongumusa and Spha, the two young investigators pictured above from their days in our 2016 Expo group?  Bongumusa will be pursuing a BSc in Life Sciences (Maths Stream) and Spha is headed for a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting, both at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Westville campus.  These are but a few of the Umkhumbane learners with whom we have been working intensively over the past four months to help them translate their high school achievements into successful college applications.  

All of The Umkhumbane Schools Project's university admissions efforts are supported directly and completely by your Global Giving donations.  Thanks to your generosity, we are able to assist learners with entrance test fees and preparation courses, with trips to campus to deliver documents, with career guidance meetings with people in the fields that interest them, with sessions online to submit scholarship applications, and with the payment of registration and acceptance fees.  Though some of these activities would seem routine in a different setting, in the township area where we work, the burdens of poverty, a lack of access to information, and the many other dimensions of marginalization that learners face turn these tasks into daunting -- and often insurmountable --  barriers to higher education access.  Your support brings this whole process within reach for our learners.   Moreover, we are able to assist and recommend them with confidence and commitment, having already worked with most of them for two years in our maths and science programming --  also enabled by your generous giving.

Many, many thanks to all of you for making this work possible.  The doors are indeed opening and these wonderful young people are headed to some very bright futures.  

Happy New Year from all of us at The Umkhumbane Schools Project!