Archive for South African education

Words from the Principal & Students of St Vincent’s in South Africa

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

A note from Sr Maria Gorette, Principal of St Vincent Children’s Home

Dear Friends of St. Vincent’s,

Greetings from St Vincent Children’s Home! It is a blessing to be so far from each other and yet be connected in this special way. We thank you for your efforts in supporting us to attend to the holistic needs of the children in our care.  Currently, children at St. Vincent’s go to
public schools in the surrounding communities. Though the schools in these impoverished townships do their best to empower the young people with knowledge, the teachers and resources are few.   Classrooms are crowded, parental involvement is minimal, and children
struggle to learn.  Thanks to the Khanyisela Scholarship, we have been able to start to address some of these educational difficulties:

  • 11 high school girls attend educational tutoring at the University of KwaZul-Natal.  This program helps them with their school projects and prepares them for final and national examinations.  We are able to pay for the tutoring fees, as well as transportation to the university, texts, and school supplies.
  • The younger children at St. Vincent’s have been enrolled in Mariannhill Primary, a multi-lingual school with greater financial and academic resources.  This early start to high quality schooling provides the children with a solid foundation as they progress in their
    education and eventually transition from St. Vincent’s.   

We hope that all will go well with our plan to help our precious children to be the best people they can be. Although we are not able to offer them the joy to be raised by biological parents and we may not be able to make up for what they have lost, it is our dream to heal the wounds of  their childhood. We wish for these children to know that the world cares about them. By empowering them with education, we can give them back their future that for so long has been overshadowed by poverty and HIV/AIDS.  We know that by supporting children and by allowing  them to  grow and develop they will discover the beauty they possess inside and become the Greatest  Future Leaders of our time.

May God bless you all for all that you do for Our Children and participating in our mission of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood.

Love & Prayers

Sr M. Gorrette Silindile Mtheku CPS (Social Worker/ Principal)

P.S. This year we have one girl (Bongiwe M.) who is completing her final year of high school. She will sit for her final examination in the beginning of December.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She wishes to study Social Work when she finishes high school.  

A Note from the Students of St Vincent’s

To the Most Special People

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for the great help that you have given us. We thank you so much, and we don’t even have so many words to say how much we appreciate what you have done for us. Now we have the opportunity to be the best learners we can be and be the most intelligent, brilliant learners in school. We have been able to gain more knowledge and more opportunities to have a better future.

We thank you so much. May God bless you provide for you.  We will always pray for you.

With Love,

High School Girls (St Vincent Children’s Home, Mariannhill, South Africa)

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Categories : African Children
Comments (0)

Counting down to January 2012

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

South African students will reach the half way mark of the 2011 school term in another month, ending their second quarter on June 24.  Soon, students in grade 12 will soon begin preparation for the end of year graduation exams, and younger students will begin counting down the days until their summer vacation begins at the start of December.  For us here at the Khanyisela Scholarship, we’ll be counting down the days until January 2012 – the school semester when the first students from St. Vincent Children’s Home will benefit from the scholarship.

For the past three years, we’ve been working with the staff of St. Vincent’s and the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, whose religious community oversees the orphanage, to create the Khanyisela Scholarship Program.  We’ve created strong, mutual collaboration with our friends at, in, and around St. Vincent’s to ensure that the scholarship best meets the needs of the children it serves.  We’ve learned the stories of children at the orphanage, stories that tell of tragic vulnerability yet shining potential.  We’ve shared these stories with like-minded individuals and sought their assistance, and have been driven forward by the generosity of those around us.

Over the coming months, the staff and Sisters at St. Vincent’s will decide which children will benefit the most from the scholarship.  With no students at St. Vincent’s currently at the point where they could begin planning for college, the scholarship will initially be used for primary and secondary education.  Scholarship recipients will be enrolled in high quality schools in this part of South Africa, schools that will allow them to fulfill their high academic potential and provide a clear pathway out of poverty.  The Khanyisela Scholarship supports the recipients financially, and our collaboration with St. Vincent’s ensures that the students are supported emotionally and academically for the highest chances of success.

The generosity of people in the United States, Canada, England, and South Africa have taken the Khanyisela Scholarship to this point.  We are filled with eager anticipation of what is to come in January 2012, and with gratitude for all who have supported the scholarship.  Thank you!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Categories : African Children
Comments (0)

A Khanyisela Presentation

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Friday, May 6th, 2011

On Saturday April 30, 2011 I had a chance to speak with the Pfanner Lay Mission Companion (PLMC) about the Khanyisela Scholarship in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Pfanner Lay Mission Companion is a Roman Catholic organization associated with the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPS) and the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries (CMM) Fathers.  PLMC is based in Toronto, Reading, and Sherbrooke Quebec and has been preparing lay persons for mission work in Africa and South America for over 15 years. 

My own experience of African mission work was made possible through PLMC.  I became involved with PLMC approximately seven years ago and was eagerly looking forward to a weekend of fellowship; it is always refreshing catching up and hearing new stories of work in the field. 

The presentation went very well, despite some nerves.  PLMC members were keen and very much supportive about this initiative.  There were discussions about St Vincent’s and also possibilities of future avenues for fundraising.  This meeting reminded me of the importance of sharing face to face with people in real time conversations; this gives people an opportunity to experience a testimony that is tangible and alive with enthusiasm.  Sharing the stories of the children at St Vincent’s also brings on a very real dimension, especially when viewing videos and pictures of time spent with the children.

Khanyisela sends hearty thanks to PLMC for the opportunity of making this presentation and sharing with them the light and joy that these children bring to all they meet. 

Siyabonga!

If you are interested in organizing a group to hear this presentation please contact us through our contact page on the Khanyisela website.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Categories : Khanyisela Blog
Comments (0)

Education in South Africa: How it works, and how it’s struggling

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Saturday, January 15th, 2011

It’s January, and that means the start of a new school year in South Africa.  In less than a week, students (or learners, as they’re called in South Africa) and teachers will fill classrooms, hoping to embark on a new year of learning, enlightenment, and growth.  It’s a good time for students to ride the momentum gained with last year’s record-breaking high school pass rate.  For those of us in the United States, Canada, and other Western countries, it’s a good time to learn about the educational experiences that our young South African friends will have this year.

Primary education is mandatory in South Africa.  According to the country’s Constitution, South Africa has an obligation to make education available and accessible.  All South Africans have the right to a basic education, including adult basic education and further education.

School in South Africa begins in grade 0, or grade R.  It’s the equivalent of our kindergarten, a time of school preparation and early childhood socialization.  Grades 0 to 9 make up General Education and Training, followed by Further Education and Training (FET) from grades 10 to 12.  Students either stay in high school during this time, or enter more specialized FET institutions with an emphasis on career-oriented education and training.   After passing the nationally-administered Senior Certificate Examination, or “matric,” some students will continue their education at the tertiary level, working towards degrees up to the doctoral level.  Over a million students are enrolled in South Africa’s 24 state-funded colleges and universities.

With a solid educational structure in place, South Africa continues the long and arduous process of overcoming the discriminatory legacy left behind by 40 years of apartheid education.  Under that system, white South African children received a quality schooling virtually for free.  Black students, on the other hand, had access only to “Bantu education”, a system based on the unjust philosophy that there was no place in South African society for black Africans “above certain forms of labor” (a quote attributed to HF Verwoerd, the architect of the Bantu Education Act of 1953).  In the 1970s, government spending on black education was one-tenth of spending on whites.  By the 1980s, teacher to pupil ratios in primary schools averaged 1:18 in white schools and 1:39 in black schools.  Even the standards for education were different between black and while schools: while 96 percent of all teachers in white schools had teaching certificates, only 15 percent of teachers in black schools were certified. Not surprisingly during apartheid, high school graduation rates for black students were less than half the rate for whites.

Bantu education was abolished with the end of apartheid in 1994.  Nevertheless, South Africa continues to struggle with inequality and educational disparities.  Seventeen years after the end of apartheid, the vast majority of poor black children are denied a quality education at severely deprived public schools.   Over three-quarters of these schools do not have libraries, and even more do not have a computer.  Around 90 percent of public schools have no science laboratory, and more than half of all pupils either have no text books or have to share them.  Over a quarter of public schools do not even having running water.

More affluent South Africans (read: White South Africans, along with a small but growing contingent from the black middle class) can afford to send their children to so-called former “Model C” schools, publicly funded schools that were previously allowed only for white students.  These schools charge extra school fees to supplement teachers’ salaries and buy extra resources.  Not surprisingly, these former white-only schools have far superior facilities and quality of education.

School outcomes tell the story of South Africa’s educational inequalities.  In 2009 just over half of black students passed the high school final exam, compared with 99 percent of whites.  Of the South African population over 20 years old, 65 percent of those who are white and only 14 percent of those who are black have a high school degree or higher.  The disparities remain at the university level.  Although black Africans account for 80 percent of the whole South African population, they make up less than half of all university students.  Less than one in 20 black South Africans ends up with a degree, compared with almost half of all whites.

Poor and orphaned children, such as those at St. Vincent Children’s Home, are particularly vulnerable to the discrepancies evident in South African education.  It is impossible for these children to access the quality of education available to more advantaged students.   Despite high aspirations and exceptional potential, they simply cannot afford to attend schools outside of those in the crowded black townships or poor rural areas where they reside.  Without a quality education, they are unable to escape their lives of poverty, allowing these inequalities to continue generation after generation.  The need for outside assistance, such as that offered by the Khanyisela Scholarship, is critical.  So what will the next South African school year bring besides learning, enlightenment, and growth?  Equality and justice, thanks to you and your support of the Khanyisela Scholarship.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

Categories : African Children
Comments (0)

The end of the 2010 South African school term: Counting down the days at St. Vincent Children’s Home

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

In a few weeks – December 10, to be exact – the last school term for South Africa’s 2010 school year will come to an end.  While younger children will eagerly jump into their summer vacation, older students completing grade 12 will spend their first few weeks of summer nervously awaiting the results of their final graduation exams.

In South Africa, all grade 12 students spend their last several weeks of high school taking the nationally-administered “Senior Certificate Examinations.”  Students who pass the exam receive a National Senior Certificate and are considered to have graduated from high school.  To be eligible to enter a university, however, students must also meet certain standards that are based on the classes that they took in high school and the grades that they received.  Indeed, admission to South African universities is strict.

This year, no students living at St. Vincent Children’s Home are completing grade 12, the very minimum requirement to gain admission to a South African university.  Where does this leave the Khanyisela Scholarship, which was originally intended to support higher education for students at St. Vincent’s?  How can we stay true to our mission while continuing to meet the educational needs of current St. Vincent children?

The Khanyisela Scholarship has always been a collaborative effort.  As we here in the US and Canada raise money and share stories about St. Vincent’s with family and friends, the staff and supporters of St. Vincent’s in South Africa remind us of the complexities of life in South Africa and the needs of the country’s most vulnerable children.  The director of St. Vincent’s, Sr. Immaculate, often shares with us her love for and deep insight into the lives of her children at the orphanage.  This year, with no current students eligible for higher education, we have been discussing using the scholarship to promote education for younger students at the children’s home.

Currently, students at St. Vincent’s attend local schools in the impoverished townships surrounding Mariannhill.  Although school fees are low there, the quality of education is poor, with crowded classrooms and no libraries or technology.  Some schools do not even have running water.  The Khanyisela Scholarship would be used to support students who would benefit from higher quality (albeit more expensive) schools, and who could withstand the academic rigor that such schools demand.  While these students will be supported financially through the Khanyisela Scholarship, St. Vincent’s will also support the children academically through the employment of an additional tutor at the orphanage.  Such a holistic approach provides the highest chances of success for our young students, success that will pave the way to a brighter future.   We expect the first students to receive the Khanyisela Scholarship in January 2012, the start of the 2012 school year.  In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with St. Vincent’s to determine the best schools for the children.  Most importantly, we will continue to listen, to learn, and to act, so that each child can reach her highest potential, no matter what school she attends.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Categories : African Children
Comments (0)

The 2010 Human Development Report: Where Does South Africa Fit In?

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Monday, November 8th, 2010

As I was reading through the 2010 Human Development Report released last Friday by the United Nations Development Program, I was disheartened to see that South Africa had dropped in the report’s rankings.  In the report’s human development index, which ranks the world’s countries according to national income, life expectancy, and literacy, South Africa this year ranked 110 out of 169 countries, down 6 levels from its 2005 ranking.  For a country that has the lowest poverty levels on the African continent, what can explain South Africa’s challenges?  Perhaps even more important, what can be done to improve not only the country’s ranking, but the lives of its individual residents?

In an honest (albeit ambiguous) answer to these questions, the report notes that there is no single model or uniform prescription for progressing human development.  That makes sense, as some countries show improved rankings in spite of modest economic growth, while other countries show strong economic performance but minimal gains in health, literacy, or individual income.  But what can explain the challenges faced by South Africa, especially when contrasted by the rapid progress made by other Sub-Saharan countries with similar demographics?  Namely, Botswana, Benin, and Burkina Faso are all noted in the report as among the top 25 countries that have made the greatest progress in human development.

Health is certainly part of the picture.  Countries with high adult mortality have a smaller workforce, less household income, higher unemployment, and, not surprisingly, lower quality of life.  This is part of the explanation for South Africa’s declining ranking: a declining life expectancy due to the HIV crisis.  With nearly one in five people infected with HIV, South Africa’s life expectancy currently stands at 52 years.  Other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, similarly have HIV prevalence rates above 15 percent and experience declining life expectancies.  As a result, these countries show the slowest progress in human development.  Although the explanation for South Africa’s lower rank in the  index is discouraging, it is at least simple and concrete.  It is an easily understood cause and effect that, with the stabilizing of HIV infection rates as some reports show, can hopefully soon be reversed.

The real linchpin to human development, though, is education.  Education is the common denominator to bringing together all components of a country’s  development: national income, life expectancy, and literacy.  It is education that leads to healthy societies and empowered citizens.  Educated people enjoy intellectual fulfillment, improved employment options, higher employment retention, and increased income.  Educated people show improved health and quality of life, important outcomes for South Africans whose families and communities have been devastated by the AIDS pandemic.  In South Africa, only a focus on education can improve the country’s human development and improve the lives of its residents.

The full report by the United Nations Development Program can be found here: http://hdr.undp.org/en/

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Categories : South Africa
Comments (0)

A Strike for South African Education

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Friday, September 10th, 2010

The children at St. Vincent’s Orphanage in Mariannhill, South Africa returned to school this week with the suspension of their county’s nearly three-week long public sector strike.  For 20 days, schools and hospitals locked their doors as union members protested for higher wages and greater housing subsidies.  I spoke with Sr. Immaculate, the director of St. Vincent’s, during the strike to learn of its impact on students at this home for vulnerable children.

A beneficiary of South Africa’s public institutions herself, Sr. Immaculate acknowledged the need for increased government spending on social services for the country’s impoverished masses.  The higher salaries that the unions demanded were warranted in order to make these teaching positions more attractive to professional, fill the existing void of teachers, and ultimately raise the quality of education.  With South Africa ranking fourth from the bottom in Newsweek magazine’s recent ranking of the world’s education systems, it seems that any strategy to decrease class size (the average class size in South Africa is 45 students per teacher), develop teachers’ capabilities, and ultimately improve educational quality is valid.  Nevertheless, Sr. Immaculate admitted, achieving these goals through the loss of 20 days of school for children seems illogical, even criminal.

Such is the nuanced view of the public sector strike: the recognition of both the benefits gained from a union strike and the harm potentially incurred on schoolchildren in the process.  Complicating the issue is the right to strike that indicates a healthy democracy, contrasted by the coercion to do so, a coercion backed by threats and actual events of violence and even death for crossing the picket line.

After such a prolonged strike, it’s easy to debate who to blame for the missed days of school: the government?  The unions?  The teachers themselves?  But such a discussion of blame centers the debate on the right to strike and the right to fair wages.  These are crucial rights, undoubtedly, but they are secondary to one of the most basic rights of all – education.

Education is a human right that, when violated, becomes a matter of social injustice.  It is the responsibility of government to correct such injustice through investments in infrastructure and human resources.  It is the responsibility of teachers to correct this injustice through their time and personal commitment to their students.  And it is the responsibility of each one of us – you, me, and all of our global society – to correct this injustice by promoting education as a fundamental social value.  Whether it is through our time, our finances, our creative gifts, or our prayers, let us affirm the importance of education.  The children of St. Vincent’s depend on it.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Categories : South Africa
Comments (0)

Leading the Khanyisela Scholarship Program

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Saturday, August 28th, 2010

It’s often heard that any organization is only as strong as its leaders.  Whether it is through the quiet, gentle style of servant leadership or the dynamic, energetic style of transformational leadership, leaders bear the responsibility for both sustaining the foundation of the organization and spurring its growth.  And certainly nowhere is competent leadership more fundamental than in the non-profit field, where uniting people around a cause is so vital.

However, as we at the Khanyisela Scholarship continue to witness, the growth of this program can not be attributed to strong leadership alone.  Instead, the credit for the development that the scholarship has seen over these past eight months goes largely to our supporters – those who have heard about the educational challenges faced by students living at St. Vincent Children’s Home and have been moved to respond in some way.  For the prayerful, creative, and financial support that the Khanyisela Scholarship has received, we are extremely grateful.

One group of supporters deserves special thanks.  The Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, an international religious community, has rallied around the cause from both sides of the Atlantic.  In South Africa, the Sisters operate St. Vincent Children’s Home, the beneficiary of the Khanyisela Scholarship.  The Sisters there have long advocated for accessible educational or employment opportunities for when the children age out of the orphanage.  The Khanyisela Scholarship was designed in collaboration with the Sisters and staff of St. Vincent’s, and the result is a flourishing, sustainable program that appropriately meets the needs of children.  In the United States and Canada, the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, or CPS (the Latin name of the community is Congregatio Pretiosi Sanguinis) acts as the scholarship’s fiscal agent.  This affiliation provides the Khanyisela Scholarship Program the benefits of being formally associated with a registered non-profit organization, including tax benefits to the scholarship’s donors.

The relationship between the Khanyisela Scholarship and CPS is far from a financial, or even organizational, nature, however.  (That’s not to say it doesn’t help – with the assistance of the North American CPS Sisters, the scholarship is on its way to accepting online donations, so keep your eyes on this website!)  In addition to tax benefits, the Sisters have given the scholarship their time and their prayers.  Last weekend Rachel and I visited the Sisters at their convent in Shillington, PA.  As we caught up with our long-time friends who live there, joined them in prayer, and found time for peaceful reflection in the still forests that surround their retreat center, we felt loved, supported, and deeply blessed.  The Khanyisela Scholarship is stronger because of all that the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood show us: the enrichment of community, the power of prayer, and the divine spirit that has touched this project since its inception.  So it is not, perhaps, the Khanyisela program’s leaders who move the project forward, nor even its supporters, but rather the grace of something larger than ourselves, something in us, and in everything, and everyone around us.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Categories : Khanyisela Blog
Comments (0)

South Africa-Development of Children in Orphanages Part 2

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Saturday, August 14th, 2010

A specific way where adaptation to the social environment lacks for children raised in orphanages in South Africa is in the area of language and speech development of their native language or second language.

Development of communication skills is essential 

Communication competence is fundamental in the growth of other significant areas of development and if frustrated can lead to an increase in long term difficulties in behavioural, social, cognitive, psychiatric, and academic competencies.[i] The term communicative competence is described as the process whereby,

 “a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires abilities as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, and in what manner.”[ii] 

 A reason to suggest this lack of communicative competence is the quality of verbal interactions between the care-givers and the children.  Due to the high care-giver to child ratio, such as 20:1 in some Romanian orphanages,[iii] low general education levels of staff, and minimal training in child care and development, often times verbal interaction and thereby modelling is limited.[iv]   A specific model of responsiveness between communication partners includes:

 Child-oriented responses (i.e. utterances that comment on the children’s plan of the moment), interaction-promoting responses (i.e. utterances that encourage children to engage in extended conversational turns), and language-modelling responses (i.e. utterances that expand or extend the semantic content of the children’s communicative attempts). [v] 

 A study completed in a South African orphanage found that care-giver interactions within these three areas were particularly inadequate.  Partially due to cultural norms, care-givers do not regard children as communicative partners.[vi]  For example care-givers often interrupt adult to adult conversation to regulate child behaviour by saying only the child’s name and with no follow up afterwards; children often take the initiative to communicate either verbally or non-verbally depending on their needs; care-givers often ignore this initiative or respond with only eye contact and very little verbal reply.[vii] As well care-givers do not change their speech pattern to accommodate the child’s developmental level and very rarely speak to infants or young children.[viii]

 A milestone for communicative competence occurs between the ages of 9-12 months and is determined by the development of canonical babbling which are vocalizations such as yells, shrieks and some vowel and consonant-like sounds.[ix] This stage is an important indicator of later speech and language development.[x]  However, in the case of the orphanage in South Africa it was perceived that the children between 9-12 months had neither developed canonical babbling or communicative intent and even those children 12-15 months had not yet developed canonical babbling and very few had limited communicative intent.[xi]  In regards to the importance of development of communication competence in infants, the cultivation of connectedness between care-giver and child necessitates the interrelationship between the child and their “immediate social world and as their communicative competence develops, so too does their ability to connect with the wider social space.” [xii] This lack of verbal modelling on the part of child-care providers in South African orphanages inhibits the communicative abilities of the children being reared in these institutions.

[i] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [ii] Brooks, B. (2001).  An examination of the communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Retrieved from http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/41123/1/2001_Brooks.pdf

 [iii] Brooks, B. (2001).  An examination of the communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Retrieved from http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/41123/1/2001_Brooks.pdf

 [iv] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [v] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [vi] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [vii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [viii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [ix] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [x] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [xi] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

 [xii] Levine, K. & Haines, S. (2007). Opportunities for the Development of Communicative Competence for Children in an Orphanage in South Africa.  Child Care in Practice, 13 (3), 221-236. doi: 10.1080/13575270701353564

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Categories : African Children
Comments (0)

South Africa Women’s Day

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Friday, August 6th, 2010

South Africans recognize Women’s Day this month, an opportunity to both commemorate the contributions made by women during apartheid and to highlight the importance of women’s rights.  Fifty-four years ago, on August 9, 1956, over 20,000 South African women marched on their country’s Parliament to protest the oppressive “pass books laws” of apartheid.  One of the most symbolic acts of apartheid’s racial oppression, the pass laws stipulated that all black South Africans over the age of 16 were required to carry a pass book, a sort of internal passport that documented permission to cross through, reside, or work in certain areas of the country.  Arrest, eviction from certain areas of the country, and imprisonment were standard consequences for any individual found to not be in possession of the pass book, or even to have a pass book with insufficient documentation.  South African women, in their fight against these laws, professed their courage and empowered women everywhere as they shouted outside the Prime Minister’s office, “When you touch the women, you strike a rock!”

South African women have made great strides over these past fifty-four years.  Over a third of senior management positions in government and state entities are held by women, and South Africa recently ranked 42nd out of 113 countries in The Economist magazine’s index of women’s economic opportunity, the second highest ranking of any African country¹.  Nevertheless, challenges remain.  Where the pass books have been abolished, poverty, violence, and sexual exploitation have stepped in.  As in most developing countries, South African women are more affected by poverty than men, as they bear the brunt of providing for their families, experience lower wages, and face discrimination that limits employment opportunities.  South Africa is also well known to have the highest incidence of rape in the world, to say nothing of the high rates of crime that plague the entire country.  Finally, in nearly every age bracket South African women have a higher prevalence of HIV than men – in some age brackets, four to six times higher.

Still, there is hope.  Education is fundamental in addressing the poverty, violence, and sexual mistreatment that South African women face.  Public and private sectors alike agree that education empowers women, promotes gender equality, and is an essential element in eradicating poverty.  Education of women is consistently associated with improved maternal health and a woman’s ability to freely move about her community and country.  A review conducted by the International Center for Research on Women² shows that these positive outcomes increase with higher levels of education, such that secondary and tertiary education have the greatest payoff in women’s health, societal position, economic opportunities, and political participation.  Thus, while primary education is critical for developing skills and the foundation for continued learning, it is higher levels of education that ultimately leads to a healthy democracy and civil society.

So perhaps the best way to commemorate Women’s Day is to not only remember those who fought before us, but to continue their fight in protecting those who come after us.  Education is our most powerful weapon in fighting the pass books of today.

¹Women’s Economic Opportunity: A New Global Index and Ranking. Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010.  Retrieved 02 August 2010.

²Malhotra, A; Pande, R; & Grown, C.  Impact of Investments in Female Education on Gender Equality. International Center for Research on Women, 2003.  Retrieved 02 August 2010.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Categories : South Africa
Comments (0)

Make a Difference In a Child’s Life

Help a child help themselves. Send them to school

Help us spread the love.
Follow our Khanyisela Facebook Page		 Help us spread the word. Place a banner on your website or blog.
 For as little as $25 you can make a difference.

Find Out How