|
During the late 1960s, apartheid crippled black schooling,
especially in the Western Cape where restrictions were so
severe that these children usually sought their education in
the old mission colleges of the Eastern Cape. At that time
every race group had a separate school syllabus with its own
text books and set-books.
During years of the worst apartheid, volunteers worked
together in a private house. School protests in 1976
resulted in heavy-handed police tactics and widespread
arrests which affected all our scholars for nearly 15 years.
Some were arrested, some were tortured, many fled the
country. On 27 April 1994, the day of South Africa's first
election, the organization moved to rented premises and
developed into an establishment with paid office staff and
an efficient computer environment.
Though independent of the State, the ASF supports learners
in the State education system and is the natural receiver of
first-hand information about conditions in the schools and
colleges. Contact with the Education Departments has been
maintained irrespective of the government in power. To date,
no financial assistance from the government has ever been
received.
The Fund relies entirely upon private
donations. Since 1970, R10 million has
enabled 34 000 schoolchildren and FET
students to pursue their studies. Most
beneficiaries are non-white learners
although no racial distinction is made
in giving the awards.
Our whole intention is focused on the
learner, for their care and their
benefit. There is no other fund quite
like this. Other organizations focus on
putting our youth through tertiary
education, but this is not possible
unless there is a supply of capable
students to start with! No student
reaches university without first going
to school. No artisan begins training at
an FET college without having first gone
to school. In fact, there would be no
students at the tertiary level unless
they had successfully completed high
school. This is what makes the
organization so unique. It is an
invaluable service that the ASF renders
– we enable and ensure that our youth
are properly schooled and prepared for
further education.
The fund works with about 600 schools every year and is in
touch with nearly twice that number. Poverty is worst in the
Eastern and Northern Cape where most of our work is done. It
is estimated that 80% of our children are “Black” learners,
19.5% “Coloured/Indian” learners and about 0.5% are “White”
learners. We do not record the race of children who are
assisted.
Our children enroll in their nearest
schools which are often very poor and
badly supplied. Personal contact with
our scholars and the staff who teach
them are invaluable and give us some
idea of the conditions of the schools
where our children are enrolled. Visits
to our schools, therefore, are arranged
whenever possible - without causing
disruption in classes. Reports on these
visits are available.
About half of our children, taken from
these under resourced backgrounds, will
succeed at tertiary level. The other
half will go into skills training, most
of them through FET colleges – where
possible we fund their bursaries too.
Our job is to get them literate,
numerate and ready for training as young
people who have shown that they are
capable of being mechanics,
electricians, technicians, nurses,
administrators, secretaries and that
they are mature enough to work reliably.
Our aim is to ensure that they have the
opportunity of becoming responsible
citizens of this country.
We have thousands of case histories,
individual stories, many of them
heart-breaking. Though we are not able
to meet 100% of the need, we are helping
- we are making a difference. For
instance is Sipho – a name which means
“gift” is 13 and passed Grade 7 with a
score of 72%. He is almost top of the
class. Of course he has known illness
like TB, Aids, mental disorder and
dysentery – or soon will – and he comes
from a family who have hardly any money
and who know hardly anything about
education. Sipho writes: “There is
too much noise in my house even when it
is late ... so I take my candle to the
toilet to study my homework.”
In spite of hunger, illness, abuse and
all the horrors of poverty, these
learners respond like sunflowers to the
sun, opening up, learning to trust and
sharing their problems, listening to
advice and becoming hopeful, seeing
beyond their world of shacks or isolated
villages and imagining a world beyond.
The Fund received the Education Africa
award in 1997 and 1998 and the Ithemba
(Hope) Award in 1997. The work has been
honoured by Rotary Clubs and the Lions.
|
