Ubuntu Education Fund

Mentors Hold Up The Fortitude

It all comes of extending  that parental kind of  care. You know, the nurturing and watching over  hatchlings, fussing over the details.   Without sufficient watching over we flounder, with it we flourish.  While nurturing isn’t limited to what only women can do to help younger people  flourish, it just  so happens that we four people managing  this education funding program are, at the moment, all women.  (But that is not going to stay that way.)   

 We turned what works, into policy at Ubuntu Education Fund: every beneficiary be under the watchful care of a mentor, a nurturer.   This year we are giving formal attention to this ‘organically grown’  part of our program.  We are  discussing  what works, finding out from students what  interactions  work well,  what the commitment is, how to get better at it. We will take   a good look at collected ideas of mentoring from outside sources, to improve  our ‘serve’.

Students breathe easier when there is a listening ear at the other end of the cell phone.  “I’ve just found out’…..and the momentary loss of breath and clear thinking is shared with someone experienced in navigating  twists and turns of institutional life. It takes fortitude to reach the end of a school course when your background hasn’t provided all you actually need.  Mentors help you get through the challenging moments.

‘Without you, Ma’am, I would never have been able to keep getting back up after failing that class.”

“She was always there where I could reach her, with a plan and a way to help me with my problems.”

“The job I have now I would never have without graduating, and if it weren’t for his counsel , I would  give up because [school] was so hard.”

“He always said, yes, we can make a plan. He drove us to Johannesberg to enrol in our electrical student program.”

While the funding has been critical to paying for daily needs, registration, books, travel and costs of being away from home for all our students, it is the mentoring, the counsel, admonishment, praise and affirmation that has made all the difference in character, perseverance, recovering from failure.

Who doesn’t thrive under being held accountable by someone who is motivated by love for us?

We  shout out a  big  thank you to the mentors of the students funded by UPEF.  Your time, your heart, your caring are a gift to all of us and to our community.