The Umkhumbane Schools Project works in the 5 secondary schools in the Cato Manor township area near Durban, South Africa to give disadvantaged youth a chance at educational success and a brighter future. As an NGO based on-site within a cluster of schools, we create opportunities for resource-sharing, collaboration, and friendly inter-school competition. This Global Giving initiative will help fund our after-school classes, pre-college enrichment and mentoring, and teaching-resource center.
Twenty years after the end of apartheid, the education available to rural and township youth in South Africa is in a state of crisis. This is especially true in math and science, where pervasive failure continues to close the door to higher education in fields such as engineering, science, medicine, and IT for all but a privileged minority. In township communities such as Cato Manor, the crisis goes hand-in-hand with high rates of poverty, unemployment, HIV and TB, and child-headed households.
Educational success can open doors, change lives, transform communities. By giving to The Umkhumbane Schools Project, you can provide Cato Manor/Umkhumbane high-school students with extra teaching, materials, mentoring, teacher support, and opportunities to participate in regional and national academic competitions, with an emphasis on math and science. Our program also provides career and higher education guidance, assisting with university admissions and bursary applications.
In the 3 years since our founding, our after-school math program transformed an 18% pass rate into a 54% pass rate. Where no child had ever competed in the Eskom Science Expo before, we have landed 38 students at the regional level and 5 students at the national level, winning a total of 21 medals, with 8 more students headed to nationals this October. This is just the beginning. Our long-term impact will be to root lasting educational success in one greater community, as a model for others.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).