SA Rocks

Ed’s not: This article was written by Andrew Whitfield.

This amazing South African has established, with the help of his friend and colleague Jacob Lief, a truly powerful organization. It is powerful because it is empowering young South Africans to rise up beyond the circumstances into which they were born. It is developing human capital for a better, brighter future.

In 1999 Banks, a school teacher, and Jacob, an American student, met in a shebeen and struck up an unlikely friendship. A few months later Jacob returned to Zwide with $7000 and Ubuntu Ecucation Fund was born. Today Ubuntu is still in Zwide thanks to the strong relationship between Banks and Jacob, and continues to change the course of countless lives.

Ubuntu Education Fund is focused on improving the lives of HIV infected and affected children in Zwide Township by educating them and providing them with the support they need to shed the shackles of their past and present. By providing psycho-social support and sponsoring their education, Ubuntu is giving these children a chance they would never have had. Their children are attending some of the country’s top private schools in St Andrews College and DSG, and going on to UCT and Rhodes University where they are exposed to a world beyond their wildest dreams. Education is the keystone of this project. “We measure success in realistic terms” says Jordan Levy of Ubuntu. Degrees and jobs are important outcomes for Ubuntu, and they work hard at ensuring that their children have access to opportunities.

While fundraising is a crucial factor in any enterprise of this kind, emphasis is placed primarily on the community. The Ubuntu model is all about engaging with the community and developing mutual respect and a level of trust. “We have the focus, grassroots connections and legitimacy of a Community Based Organisation and the know-how of an International Organisation”, says Levy. He concedes that there have been tough times but by staying the course and building local relationships in the community their cause has prevailed.

When questioned about fundraising Jordan tells me, with a confident portion of pride, that 85% of every Rand raised finds its way back into projects in Zwide. “Ubuntu is run like a business.” By paying competitive salaries and attracting highly qualified individuals they are able to be sustainable.With offices in New York, London and, of course, Zwide, Ubuntu is a serious organization attracting a serious following. Support from their patrons Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and Hugh Masekela as well as support from the Clinton Foundation; ensure that Ubuntu is taken very seriously beyond our borders. The tragedy is that very few people within our borders know about the work that Ubuntu is doing. Help to raise their local profile by spreading the word. Check out their site and join their Facebook group. If you are in PE, pop in and have a chat – their work will blow your socks off (if the wind doesn’t).

Malizole “Banks” Gwaxula is a great South African without whom this amazing project would not be possible. It is he who represents the spirit of Ubuntu and the pride of his community and his country.

For more info: http://ubuntufund.org/

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HELL YES!

With South Africa’s current political situation the best thing that we can do for the citizens of this country is expose them to as many different choices as possible.

A recent comment on this blog alluded to the fact that South Africa’s democracy is failing because we almost become a single party state. This is problematic because people begin to think that there is only one option when they vote. Instead of thinking that there are many options, people be default and almost instinct begin to vote for one party and in SA that party is the ANC. This becomes more problematic because people begin to feel as if the alternative isn’t representative and in turn believe that they should not vote because there are no options.

The worst thing that can happen to a democratic society is for the citizens of the country to become apathetic. Apathy breeds inaction and inaction breeds dictatorship. Edmund Burke said “Evil prevails when good people do nothing”. This is the truth right now in our political climate. We need action.

IOL reports: “The public broadcaster told the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) that the flighting of political party messages could cost it up to R91,8-million in lost advertising revenue.

“It’s a lot of money… Eighty percent of our revenue comes from advertising,” said SABC news chief Snuki Zikalala.

“[It will] dent our finances, badly, badly.”

Hmmm… let us see, shall we rather dent the finances of the governmental broadcaster (read voice) or shall we rather attempt to keep our democracy in place? I am voting for the latter. I believe that one of the biggest problems facing the citizens of this nation is lack of voter education. We don’t know what parties we can vote for, can you name just six parties in SA? If you an I am sure you are one of the few. If you can’t welcome to the club. To me the most sensible thing to do is send out adverts on our national broadcaster to the public which indicate that the most important thing to the government and its broadcaster is the public and their education.

I am sure there are many people who will disagree with me on this one but I am, right now, rallying for votes, voting and action. Screw the public broadcaster’s back pocket. Screw the CEO’s and bigwigs bonuses. What the hell is R9mill at the end of the day? That’s the difference between 9 top managers and their wives Mercedes and the honour of our democracy.

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I just read about the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. It’s a bit in depth but can be simplified.

The Facebook group simplifies it fairly well so I wont try to do it better:

[The Declaration] is designed to echo the disruptive effect that open source had on the proprietary software world by opening up the development and distribution of educational materials.” The declaration calls for more educational materials to be open sourced and freely shared (like MIT did), and says that “all taxpayer-funded educational resources should be open.

That makes sense to me. Let knowledge be freely available to those who need it. Much like opensource software. Brilliant concept.

Who has initiated this Declaration? None other than Mark Shuttleworth himself. The Shuttleworth foundation is behind the Declaration.

It is a global attempt to make educational resources freely available based on an opensource concept. Why the name? Simple, the Shuttleworth Foundation is headquartered in Cape Town.

From the Declaration:

This emerging open education movement combines the established tradition of sharing good ideas with fellow educators and the collaborative, interactive culture of the Internet. It is built on the belief that everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint.

Get on over to the site and sign the Declaration as an individual or sign it as an organisation.

Once you’ve signed be sure to head over to the Facebook group to keep up with the project and it’s developments.

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Sunday lunch is always interesting in my house. There is always some sort of heated debate. This week’s debate was HIV/Aids education.

I believe that there can never be enough education around Aids. But I also believe it is not purely up to schools to educate. Parents, teachers, friends, schools, universities, television, radio, newspapers and any other platform need to be constantly providing knowledge about Aids. Obviously this means that knowledge around the topic needs to be vast and learned by many.

What are the best ways to educate people? And once education is done, where does the buck stop?

I am somewhat controversial in my opinions at this point. I believe that once education is put forward it is up to the individual to be smart and make a choice. I don’t mean specifically in regard to sexual intercourse. Kids need to be educated early that blood can be dangerous. It is a shocking thought, but if my child were on the school playground and someone was cut, I would teach them to leave the person who was bleeding alone and to go and call someone trained to handle blood.

When it does come to sex, I think that people know. Many people know about Aids, how it is contracted and what to do to prevent that when having sex. If you avoid all the warnings, advertising and education provided for you, then it is your fault and you deserve what you get. If you haven’t received the education, then I feel sorry for your, ofcourse.

What do you think?

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