Dear All:
We recently reported on social media that we had only $150 left to fund the completion of our Wellness Studio project (hosted on GlobalGiving), and someone made a donation and bridged the gap! As a result, we are able to deactivate this project and turn our focus to other efforts.
We're sincerely grateful to each of you who gave, because this wellness space came at a particularly important time, given the toll that COVID-19 has taken on everyone’s physical and emotional health. We’re enthusiastic about the potential of this studio to bring students a respite – through song, dance, self-defense, yoga, and more – from the daily challenges that have been exacerbated by the lingering pandemic.
Please visit our web-site (www.universalpromise.org/) to learn more about our efforts to achieve and sustain equity through education, and take a look at our computer lab (https://goto.gg/55044) and playground projects (https://goto.gg/55032), both listed on GlobalGiving.
I always say that we believe in chronic empowerment, not chronic handouts, and your donation to our cause indicates that you, too, clearly value the power of education.
Thank you and best wishes.
Martha T. Cummings
Universal Promise
Executive Director
Links:
Dear All:
We're only $150.72 from wrapping UP this Wellness and After School Program project on GlobalGiving!
First, though, allow me to say that I hope you're doing well and staying safe and healthy during this long and difficult global upheaval. The impact, of course, has been disproportionate from region to region, and I remain grateful to each of you for keeping Universal Promise and those we serve in your sights.
Second, each quarter GlobalGiving asks me to update you about the progress of our initiatives. As you know, we were mid-project when the pandemic hit; nevertheless, we managed to renovate, from top to bottom, this space designed for creativity and mindfulness. The studio is now a stunning haven at SSSS, and, as you will see from the attached photographs, a place in which students may carry out curricular and co-curricular requirements, including dance performances for their Arts & Culture classes.
We have to raise only $150.72 more to bring this project to a close on GlobalGiving, and I hope this email will compel some of you to take that leap. We will use the $150.72 to enhance the space with wall posters, featuring words of encouragement, yoga positions, self-defense stances, music staffs, etc.
Wrapping UP this project will allow us to focus on two more projects: a playground and a 33-station computer laboratory for a K - 7 school in the South African rural region we serve.
I trust you will enjoy the photos of the students dancing in the Wellness Studio - and competing for their educator's stamp-of-approval. Thank you to all for funding a calming space where students may go to escape from the relentless challenges fueled by systemic poverty and poor healthcare.
Thank you for your compassion and generosity. Your legacy is alive and well in the hearts (and feet!) of South Africa.
Gratefully yours,
Martha T. Cummings
Universal Promise
Executive Director
Links:
Dear All:
As you well know by now, GlobalGiving asks that we write quarterly reports to update donors about the status of each of our GlobalGiving projects. You're receiving this update because you so generously contributed to our South African Wellness and After School Program at Samkelwe Senior Secondary School.
Despite the brutal impact of COVID-19 around the world, we have managed to carry on with a number of our initiatives in South Africa. During this pandemic, we even "adopted" a fourth school and received its Top 10 wishes for change, and we've been moving through Samkelwe's Top 10 wishes as well. We've just begun wish #7, which is the renovation of all currently used classrooms. I've attached photos of the start of the windows replacement project, which will not only be more aesthetically pleasing, but will also keep students and educators warm during the frigid South African winter; yes, it gets very cold in South Africa.
We've also continued to support Vusumzi Primary School by funding the Computer Lab Coordinator position and by creating and funding a Library Coordinator position. At the same time, we've purchased the school's library software program and continued populating the shelves with books.
The pandemic, however, has slowed the Samkelwe students' use of the Wellness Studio. The government has prevented the choir from singing in enclosed spaces, due to the exhalation during rehearsal, and that decree was issued for other activities, as well, such as dance, yoga, etc. The school is eagerly awaiting the END of COVID, as we all are, so the students may use that space on a regular basis.
So, there is more to come; in the meantime, I thank you for your patience and altruism.
Martha T. Cummings
Universal Promise
Executive Director
Dear Universal Promise Donors:
As part of our membership in GlobalGiving, we are asked to write regular reports to update you on the project to which you donated. We appreciate this opportunity to thank you, again, for your support of our efforts in South Africa and to share with you the status of the initiative.
As I mentioned in a previous report, COVID-19 has done its best to derail and demoralize the entire world, but resilience and creativity have found ways to interrupt the virus’s path whenever possible. As such, we have carried on with our efforts at Samkelwe Senior Secondary School (SSSS), as evidenced by the attached photographs of our newly installed 33-station computer laboratory there. The lab comes with state-of-the-art laptops, curricular software, Internet, an interactive white board, a Computer Lab Coordinator, and training for all adults and students. As one student said, “It is as if you are willing us to come to school, to make us stronger, to help us study harder and get an education, and to change our lives.”
With respect to “your” Wellness and After School Program, as you know, Universal Promise collaborates with schools in a rare and effective way. We ask all school stakeholders to share their Top 10 wishes for change, and then we sit with administrators to prioritize those wishes, all of which must focus on education. Of utmost importance is our agreement that the school will take ownership of the initiative. The educators and students must do the same, and then Universal Promise will follow suit. The purpose is to inspire ownership, pride, and sustainability.
Toward that end, we have asked SSSS to craft and present to Universal Promise the following improvements, all of which will address needs locals have repeatedly expressed and Universal Promise has witnessed throughout our 13 years visiting the community.
1. build a strong relationship with social workers to support SSSS students
2. complete Form-22, which reports cases of students struggling at school or elsewhere
3. create a school anti-drug program to reduce the presence of drugs
4. create an intervention program to get help for learners struggling with drug usage
5. collaborate with UP to institute wellness guest speakers and field-trips
6. collaborate with UP to attract facilitators for the After School Program
7. institute environmentally friendly programs, including recycling and campus-wide clean-ups
We believe these protocols, their implementation, and evidence of their impact will meet the standard of mutual accountability, at which point Universal Promise will advance the Wellness Program, the After School Program, and classroom renovations.
This, of course, takes time, but we firmly believe that such patience instills accountability and pride and eliminates a hand-out mentality, which is often more harmful than helpful.
So, we thank you for your past support, would welcome your future support, and would appreciate your forwarding news of this project to colleagues, family, and friends who may, like you, be able to make a difference. Furthermore, if you work for a company that offers matching grants or has a philanthropic arm, we ask that you reach out to them, too, on our behalf.
Best wishes for a happier, healthier, and more travel-oriented (!) 2021.
Sincerely yours,
Martha (aka Nobuntu) Cummings
Dear Universal Promise Donors:
As part of our membership in GlobalGiving, we are asked to write quarterly reports to update you on the project to which you donated. We appreciate this opportunity to thank you, again, for your support of our efforts in South Africa and to share with you the status of the initiative.
We have been busy, despite the obstacles and sadness COVID-19 has brought to the world. Our South African friends have not been sheltered from the virus's attack. Several of them and their relatives have succumbed to the virus, leaving those who faced staggering challenges before COVID-19 with even greater trials. We have said goodbye to a Samkelwe Senior Secondary School (SSSS) English teacher, the husband of an SSSS administrator, the husband of a staff member at the guest house at which we always stay, and several friends and relatives of members of our Board of Directors.
Now, more than over, this project meets a great need: making available to those we serve the skills and resources to survive and then thrive.
As a result, Universal Promise has been working with USA-based and South Africa-based experts to expand the Arts, Self-defense, & Yoga Studio project to include a broader wellness focus. The enhanced program includes two parts.
THE FIRST PART is entitled THEMBA, a Xhosa word for hope, which stands for The Holistic Education of Mind, Body, and Attitude. The program seeks to address, in a sustainable way, the challenges associated with emotional, physical, and sexual health, including some of the very obstacles the poorest-of-the-poor are facing during the COVID-19 crisis.
With respect to food insecurity, for instance, the wellness program intends to install a massive permaculture garden at SSSS and provide training for upkeep, offer materials and instruction for home-gardening, bring in five-star Xhosa chefs from local restaurants and lodges to lead workshops highlighting nutritious options (and expose students to another career alternative), and launch a student showcase at the community hall, during which students would teach residents what they learned throughout the nutrition unit.
That is just one example of the hands-on, proactive, sustainable elements of the THEMBA curriculum. This multifaceted approach also surfaces when we explore a culture's impact on health; substance abuse; mental, physical, relationship, and sexual health; student leadership; and access to university, college, and technical school.
THE SECOND PART of the program is the SSSS after-school initiative, which will include chess, choir, coding, dance, debate, mathematics tutoring, Microsoft lessons, self-defense, sports (cricket, cross-country, netball, rugby, and soccer), and yoga & meditation. The aim is to provide an array of options to broaden outlooks and to make good use of idle time.
These remarkable options require funding, of course, so we have increased the budget for this project so we may acquire a project coordinator and activities leaders, purchase materials, invite guest lecturers, and fund field-trips, all of which will personalize the experience and bring it from the theoretical to the practical.
So, we thank you for your past support, would welcome your future support, and would appreciate your forwarding news of this project to colleagues, family, and friends who may, like you, be able to make a difference. Furthermore, if you work for a company that offers matching grants or has a philanthropic arm, we ask that you reach out to them, too, on our behalf.
While COVID-19 has halted the world in ways unknown in our lifetimes, it has also sent important messages about global inequities, racial disparities, and the importance of working for the greater good. We are hopeful that this past year of reflection will compel everyone to act with more empathy. As my dear mother was fond of quoting, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."
Sincerely yours,
Martha (aka Nobuntu) Cummings
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
