We built a Science Lab in Mamelodi. How mad is that!
Through all the challenges faced by the community; through the red tape and the political and cultural differences and understandings, we built a science lab in Africa.
Are we done? Well let’s take a leaf out of Simon Sinek’s book and first ask the question WHY?

Over the years , I have met many amazing individuals in South Africa. People who through the dreadful apartheid years followed their values and quietly defied its rules and inhumanities. My first such experience  started with Dee Pullen who ran the Outreach Project in the Atteridge township west  of Pretoria. Her base St. Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls who with Merlyne Boshard at Motheong Primary never lost respect and faith in the ability and determination of the black African professionals and their students.

http://www.motheongprimaryschool.com/

These are some of the many unsung heroes of Africa that need to be recorded. I can’t remember all the names of the heads and teachers in the township who with their support changed the self-belief of many of their students. Who helped them achieve more than they thought might be possible. So here’s just one indomitable school leader Dee’s team  coached – Paulina Sethole . Supporting one of the poorer and transient populations in the township,  Banareng Primary School  had little respect from its neighbourhood community. It’s grounds became dumping grounds for rubbish. She realised that most children arrived at school with no breakfast and often little to eat the night before. So she turned her grounds into a vegetable garden. She persuaded a local company to set up a bread van at he school gates and slowly the community saw the school as a real opportunity for their children to grow and prosper. They had days when the community could help with recycling. Monday was brown water day where waste water was brought to irrigate the plots. Tuesday was peel day when vegetable matter was brought to create compost bins and so on. You can imagine the impact of having healthier children who immediately achieved more.

But Dee and her team did much more. They supported heads to build their professional and pedagogical skills and we and many school team members were privileged to help. I think you can understand the impact from a brief conversation I had with Andy, a young Maths teacher who came out on one of the first trips and when asked what had he learned said,
“ I have rediscovered why I came into teaching”

The inspiration continued at a different level when I met Robby and Thana Pienaar. With deep Christian values, and out of their own personal family tragedy, they dedicated their lives to creating a school for all South Africans out near the Hammanskraal township. They  have built almost literally by hand an amazing large boarding school. 95% of the school population of over a 1000 are black. They achieve almost 100% high level matric year, but above all this have developed a strong cultural curriculum with amazing art, music, dance and drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFyyhdiSZ1w

It is hard to convey the achievement. But it is borne out of an amazing personal history and service and a belief in human potential and latent talent. Thana once described to me how on a trip to the Kruger they came across two young children walking through the park. You can only imagine the danger they were in. Their tale was of a family crossing into the Kruger from Mozambique to seek a better life in South Africa. They had witnessed their family being killed by lions escaping themselves into a tree. Without a second thought Rob and Thana took responsibility for their futures.

Which brings me to Bajabulile in the Mamelodi township. I can’t remember how Peter Moabelo and I came into contact. It was part of a study visit of heads facilitated by our good friends Bill and Janelle Temple. From that we undertook to support this primary school.

You see as you travel into schools across the township how good heartedness in the UK and other countries have provided text books and computers they no longer use. Often you find them in dusty unused rooms. Very often computers are not compatible, are not there as part of any teaching plan and fail to recognise that many do not have sustainable internet access. It seems the right thing to do., But we started this project with a simple question to Peter – what would make the biggest difference for your students? The answer – a science lab.
The biggest class at Bajabulile is 65 and the classrooms cramped and small, and for much of the year very hot. It is very difficult to provide engaging Science in that environment. Moreover if we want to give these students the best of future chances then to give them a strong matric in Science and Maths is essential. Two of the examples above were able to create private schools leaving many still with poorly  resourced secondary education.
There is still much to do that is not to do with resources but is to do with staff training and in pedagogy.  It still feels like teaching rather than learning. But Queen Chimeloane , the new principal and former deputy has assembled an increasingly strong and energetic team of teachers. Discipline and behaviour is excellent and working there you realise the latent talent in these students.

So we built a Science Lab in Africa. Let’s not get too self-satisfied, given those educational heroes above who not only have lived this day-to-day, but continue to inspire educators and learners. You have to accept that you can only affect what you can touch. We are not going to solve the challenges of schooling in South Africa or even Mamelodi. But we are supporting all those who can; our job is to find ways to support the heroes. All of those named above will be embarrassed by that description but it is right to shout out for their heroic work and the teams that support them. They all display that engaging humility and strong will that characterises what Jim Collins in ‘Good to Great’ describes as level 5 leadership.

Thank you to all those of you who have and continue to support this work. We need to keep on. It is not done.

BE THE LEGACY