Lifeskills 2,743 vulnerable children South Africa

Thank you for your support! Welcome to all the new amazing supporters to Keep The Dream196.

I want to show you what we have achieved last year despite Covid!

Finally, the matriculation results are out!

I am ecstatic to report that once again we had a 100% pass rate for our learners in Matriculation.

Sadly Covid is being blamed for the drop in the matriculation results, personally, I think it is a lack of commitment shown by the government to equip particularly rural schools with the capacity to provide minimum services to the students to enable them to achieve successful results. We are still dealing with schools that do not have electricity, running water and adequate security never mind computers, teachers who can utilize computers, and teachers who can teach in English! Still, lessons are taught in local languages despite the fact that the matriculation exams are in English.

The following are excerpts from the TIMES LIVE newspaper as comments from the Minister of Education:

• To obtain a Bachelors pass to access University – the pupils are required to get a minimum of 40% for their home language plus 50% in 4 other subjects and at least 30% in the language of learning.
• For a Diploma – pupils must obtain 40% for their home language and at least 40% for 3 other subjects and 30% for the language of learning
• For Higher Certificate Pass – the pupils home language remains 40% and at least 30% in the language of learning and 40% in 2 subjects and a minimum of 30% in the other subjects.

30% pass is a minimum requirement in all subjects to be awarded a Higher Certificate. So as you can see, the pass rate is very low to start with.

Limpopo had a 66% pass rate. That means one in three pupils in Limpopo failed to reach the minimum standard for a Higher Certificate pass. They failed to achieve 30% of their marks and 40% for language. What an indictment.

For Keep The Dream196 we had 100% pass with no Higher Certificate pass, they were Bachelor and Diploma passes. The children learn to persevere and as you can imagine with two years of Covid limited contact education they needed to persevere. Over the last 13yrs, we have had an average pass rate of 92%. Limpopo Dept of Education 64%.

The difference is our program. Together we bring hope for the future. The Children run with this hope, they identify their dreams, and we assist them to work towards that dream. We give them the skills and abilities to realize those dreams. They learn to study effectively, to manage their time, manage their study load, and work as a team as they identify their strengths and weaknesses. It is so exciting to see more children enter tertiary education on the next leg of their journey.

All of this is because of your support. Your investment in our kids is life-changing and future-creating. You are responsible for their success just as much as they are. With future studying through bursaries, we assist those to access, you are changing not just their lives, their families and their villages as these kids break the poverty cycle.

Can you see why me saying “Thank you” just does not cut it! It doesn’t portray effectively what you have done!

You are amazing

Blessings

Louise

Links:

• Facebook is a great way to stay in touch, dont forget to like us
• Why not visit our website? You are welcome to leave a message!

Avuxeni, Min Jani (Hello, how are you?)

Thank you for the huge difference your support is making to the children we serve. The money we raise goes towards implementing our children's program, subsidizing all of our activities, training, monitoring, implementation, evaluation etc. Knowing you have our backs is huge, thank you!

Also, I want to thank those who answered the call to start monthly donation giving, that is awesome. You are so amazing. It helps us so much to be able to plan effectively knowing we have whatever amounts coming in on a monthly basis.

Regarding thank-you notes, when someone donates for the first time they receive an email outlining our activities and impact. Once you donate again or monthly, then you receive a personal note from me. Except for those who choose to donate anonymously, I cannot determine if you have donated before so I sent the same thank you each time. I do apologize but that is the system we have to work with. Also, for those who use cheques, these cheques may only appear on my system 6-8weeks after the fact, which may mean they don’t appear on my screen and I have to go back a page or so to find them. Why is this an issue, I may not see your gift until months later so I cannot send thank you’s timeously. It’s not that we don’t care or appreciate your gift it’s the system with which we work. GG wait until the money has cleared before it appears on our system.

Whew, we have been back to work 2weeks and already it feels like 2months, so much has happened! I don’t know about you but it seems like 2022 has opened with a bang, where last year everyone was slow to get going, hesitant to make plans, reluctant to invest too much time and energy due to Lockdowns hanging over our heads, this year is totally different.

Already in January I have had two donor meetings and a planned site visit at the end of the month.

All staff have returned to the deck and are ready to take on the world which is exciting. We have picked up a number of new groups and children over the Christmas period which is exciting. We also have scheduled training of adults to run our program in Feb and July.

We have a number of young leaders who also have been trained in the introduction phase, they are passionate about continuing that training and about furthering that training and forming a training team under KTD196 to extend our reach, capacity, and resources. This will make the organization far more sustainable past myself and Elizabeth (the founders). All of these young adults have grown up in our program and understand its value, oh and they are volunteering and giving their best.

We are currently getting our finances organized for an audit after March so you can rest assured we are doing the work we say we are doing, that all our policies and procedures are being adhered to and our financial accountability is maintained. To that end, I realized I did not give you financial feedback from 2020’s financial year. Although I offered to forward if you would like to see our full financials I didn’t give a breakdown, so I will now.

Sadly it is difficult to share real figures (due to issues of confidentiality and having these reports in a public space) If you would like a complete copy of our Annual Financial Statements please just ask keepthedream196@gmail.com and I will forward happily.

Admin and Management Costs including rent, electricity, audit, book keeper etc. 18%

Project Costs all activities and costs associated with the projects we run             82%

Total                                                                                                                         100%

I had prepared a graph but am unable to insert it here, unfortunately. Please see below as an attachment

As you can see in previous years we have increased our Admin and Management costs marginally. 18% which is very good for non-programmatic costs so I hope you are pleased. No one likes to talk about these costs but they are necessary to remain an accountable, effective organization.

Anyway, I thought you would like to be kept in the loop, please let me know if this is not what you want to know or see. Also if you could let me know if you have any questions that you specifically have or any comments you would like to make I would be happy to answer your questions.

I look forward to next week.

Blessings and take care

Louise

Links:

• Facebook is a great way to stay in touch, dont forget to like us
• Why not visit our website? You are welcome to leave a message!

• Finance Graph for those who like pictures (XLSX)