Empowering South African Youth Through Education

It's hard to know where to begin in updating our GlobalGiving network about recent activities of The Umkhumbane Schools Project...we have been busy!!!  Instead of focusing on one particular development, this report will give you a glimpse of three exciting intiatives that your generosity is making possible for the youth of in our Umkhumbane/Cato Manor.

USP First-Aid Squads have begun their training!  While First-Aiding is a popular extra-curricular activity in well-resourced South African schools, this kind of skills development is generally unavailable to learners in township and rural areas.  Given the great need for life-skills development opportunities for our Umkhumbane youth, combined with the stresses on health and safety often faced by those living in our community, we thought that First-Aid would be a perfect fit for our learner-programming.  Thirty learners, from two of our schools, have now nearly completed Level One First-Aid certification, and will continue to meet as a team in order to practice their skills and to promote health and safety both at school and in the broader community.  Thank you, GlobalGiving supporters! 

Maths Olympiads are spreading the word: Math is Fun!  Maths learning in South Africa continues to face a crisis of severe underperformance in the post-apartheid era, and many learners from disadvantaged schools end up losing hope and completely giving up on math  -- thereby closing off opportunities for higher education and employment in many higher-paying fields.  Our Grade 8 & 9 programming is focused on building fundamental skills that were missed in earlier years, while instilling confidence and excitement about maths as a subject.  And what better way to build excitement than to conduct Maths Olympiads at all five schools, "Minute-to-Win-It" style!  So far we have completed Olympiad days at two of our schools, and we will be conducting these exciting events at the remaining three schools soon.  At the end of the year, we look forward to hosting our first-annual Interschool Maths Olympiad!  Again...Thank you, GlobalGiving supporters!

Environmental Awareness in the Umkhumbane community took a big leap forward with our screening of An Inconvenient Truth for all of the Grade 10 Geography learners in all five of our schools.  What a memorable and special day this was  --  the coming to fruition of a dream of showing this film, which is a recommended part of the school curriculum but which our community of schools had never been able to see until now.  So...once more...Thank you, GobalGiving supporters!

Your ongoing, generous support is enabling The Umkhumbane Schools Project to expand horizons, teach new skills, and inspire hope among a very wonderful group of young people.  From the bottom of our hearts...Thank You!

With gratitude and excitement for the work ahead,

Martha