Empowering South African Youth Through Education

Dear GlobalGiving Donors,

Greetings at the end of the first semester of the school year in Durban!  We have not reported on our mathematics program in awhile, so I wanted to update you on this cornerstone feature of The Umkhumbane Schools Project’s presence in the Cato Manor township community. 

 As you may recall, we have a motto for our maths program: “Not Your Ordinary Math Class.”  And what makes this learning experience more than ordinary?  Surely one key aspect is the amazing team of teachers who have been returning each year to assist with our Friday and Saturday math program. Our teaching assistants do trainings throughout the year in the USP’s teaching mehods, which emphasize problem-solving and learning-by-doing.  This dedicated team loves to teach and loves to help our learners figure out math problems in their own way so that the learning is durable and builds skills.  Several of our math assistants are alums of The Umkhumbane Schools Project who have come back to teach with us out of a sense of gratitude for the impact this program had on their own success in school. 

In this season, we celebrate in particular our math teaching assistant Minenhle Buthelezi, who received his Master’s in Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal just a few weeks ago.  Well Done, Minenhle!

By far the most important ingredient in our math program’s success is the learners themselves.  Our weekend classes are filled with young scholars who stay late on Fridays or walk a distance on Saturdays seeking out the learning that the USP classes have to offer.  Word-of-mouth has attracted learners from several additional schools, some of whom travel an even greater distance to attend.  We have taught for thirteen weekends in this first semester, and average weekly attendance has been 110 Grade 12 learners, 102 Grade 11 learners, and 118 Grade 10 learners each Friday or Saturday.  In short, more than 100 learners in each grade are putting on their uniforms, walking in the heat or cold or rain, and showing up in these numbers during their weekend time, week after week, eager to learn.  Not at all ordinary.

Thanks to the generous, unstinting support of our GlobalGiving donors, this program has been a singular feature of the learning landscape in the Cato Manor township for twelve years – and is still going strong.  Thank you for being our Anything-But-Ordinary donors.  We appreciate you, we could not be doing this without you, and we will continue to keep you posted on what your extraordinary generosity is making possible.

With gratitude from all of us at The Umkhumbane Schools Project,

Martha

Martha Fitzpatrick Bishai
Director 

The Umkhumbane Schools Project