Little School On The Prairie
How do you go about breaking the bonds of poverty? A tiny school in the middle of the Karoo shows the way.
By Julienne du Toit
Pictures by Chris Marais
THE MAGIC BUS
We’re standing beside a windmill at the side of a little dust road, somewhere between Colesberg and the blue horizon. The Climax spins and creaks quietly in the cool morning breeze and a few sheep bleat in the distance. Another day in the vast Karoo.
Soon, though, it’s drowned out by the distant roar of a straining engine. A school bus appears, emblazoned with the words ‘Hantam Community Education Trust’, packed with children wearing grins as wide as the sky.
The bus heads over the hill and pulls up at a set of neat white buildings, red-roofed and surrounded by trees and lawn.
Before long, nearly 200 kids are out and practising sprints, hurtling along string-lined tracks in the dust or on the grass in the courtyard, watched over by teachers. To the side, a man with a lime green cap bearing the words “Mighty Men” is teaching a group of nonplussed girls how to throw a heavy metal shotput.
A NEW WORLD
This is the Umthombo Wolwazi Farm School, the Hantam Community Education Trust’s central project, and it is like no other farm school you’ve ever seen. Fast forward to an hour later when the youngsters are in class.
In Grade 2, there’s classical music playing in the background as they concentrate on their books. “Invaluable for calming them down,” says teacher Louise Augustyn.
In Grade 4, there is a palpable flutter of excitement as the children are handed back the books they have written and illustrated themselves. The project, overseen by Cape Peninsula University of Technology lecturer Anne Hill, helped them create enthralling accounts of magical creatures and brave youngsters through pictures and new vocabulary.
In a classroom for those with learning disabilities, Angelina Allens has the kids (nicknamed the Musketeers) on exercise balls, drawing infinity curves with both hands to help co-ordinate the left and right halves of their brains.
ASK BIG JAN
In Technology class, Jan Augustyn (the shotput instructor) is explaining how pumps work. Later they’ll head out to a windmill so the kids can appreciate the beautiful simplicity of one in action.
In the highly popular school library, Vuyokazi Katise – an old pupil of the school, now the librarian, is cataloguing the 10 391st book to be donated.
In the staffroom, Grade 5 teacher Ettorina Stoop, talks of her passion for teaching.
“The moment when a light goes on in a child’s head, when the curtains open, that’s the moment we live for.”
It’s a delightful slice of life at an inspirational school, but the light here shines all the brighter when you compare it to what’s happening in other schools.
There you’ll find unmotivated teachers, drunk teachers, overwhelmed teachers, children who walk 15 km or more to schools everyday, hungry children, sick children, children with foetal alcohol syndrome, children who are heads of AIDS-orphaned households, schools with no electricity, no toilets, no facilities, no textbooks and sometimes no roofs.
In fact, if you ever wonder why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, look to the schools. That’s where it starts.
BUCKING THE POVERTY CYCLE
A farm school is the last place you’d expect to buck the poverty cycle. But this school is clearly different.
At the heart of it is a large breezy office where you’ll find the three founders of the Hantam Community Education Trust: Lesley Osler, Clare Barnes-Webb and Anja Pienaar, plus project manager Estelle Jacobs.
Pinned on the wall above their heads are these uncompromising words:
”The only way in which the people of South Africa will be empowered entirely and permanently is through quality education.”
SMALL BEGINNINGS
But 21 years ago, Lesley, Anja and Clare had no idea that their humble little plans would end up as this little miracle of a school.
“We really weren’t thinking big at all,” says Lesley. “We would never have had the courage to dream as big as this.”
What these three farmers wives had in mind back in 1989, was a little crèche for their workers’ children, she explains.
Its success led to the parents begging for a new school to be created, and against all odds, the three made it happen.
Right from the beginning, the school went against the stream. The state was called on to contribute resources, but the project was to be privately co-ordinated.
KARRETJIEMENSE
Umthombo Wolwazi (the Fountain of Knowledge) started in 1991 on a vacant house on one of the farms. Soon it was serving children in a 50 km radius, most from farms, some from Colesberg, some from the poorest of the poor – the itinerant sheep-shearers, the so-called Karretjiemense. (Lately though, middle and upper class members of society all around the region are clamouring to get their children enrolled.)
Funding came in fits and starts because the school had already shown signs of what would become its signature strengths – ongoing training wherever needed, and a holistic approach to education that spread far beyond the classroom.
Training spilled over into the community – there were classes in literacy, welding, sewing, leatherwork, fabric painting, cookery and woodwork. Later, the Trust started to train methods of Outcomes Based Education to teachers at other schools – from Colesberg to Noupoort, Norvalspont, Hanover and Richmond.
HEALTH ISSUES
In 1999, some of the teachers were picking up health issues in the children’s development. Someone suggested a community clinic. Lesley, who had become the fundraiser in chief, initially baulked. But as if in response to a prayer, a donor came through.
Soon they had a fully-fledged clinic managed by a pharmacist and two sisters; three years later, the pharmacy was added.
“I thought it was going to be a white elephant. Now I wonder how the community coped before.
“We serve a huge area, including Bethulie and Venterstad which don’t have pharmacies.
“Through the health centre, we’ve picked up malnutrition, infectious diseases, even cases of abuse at home. Each child is examined once a year, weighed, their eyes tested, teeth checked and blood pressure checked.”
FARM OUTREACH
Soon, though, the Trust realised they needed to go even further than that. There were too many children who entered the school with development problems. So with Vuyokazi Katise, Nombulelo Matyeka and Lettie Martins, they started up an Effective Parenting programme of early intervention.
As soon as they hear a woman in the district is pregnant, one of their health workers will go to her and explain to her what is happening with her body, what she should and shouldn’t eat, that she risks foetal alcohol syndrome if she drinks alcohol.
When the baby is born, they teach the mother about hygiene and feeding, about allowing babies to crawl and move freely.
“We’ve found that children who don’t crawl have much greater difficulty learning to read and write later on.”
As they children grow to toddlers, the health workers take toys with them and toss balls to the children to check coordination, balance and eyesight. They talk to the children and check their hearing. They discreetly check food availability in the house and give advice on everything from growing veggies to creating toys from scrap.
SHINING STARS
The holistic approach doesn’t stop when the children leave the school after Grade 9. For those that need it and have good marks, there are bursaries that help them matriculate at nearby schools. And if they merit tertiary education, those kinds of bursaries are available too.
The teachers are terribly proud of their alumni, many of whom have excelled beyond all expectations.
One of their pupils is now in his fifth year at medical school, and there are hundreds more little success stories – sons and daughters of barely educated parents who have gone on to become teachers, hairdressers, bank tellers, plumbers, welders and panel beaters. One boy excelled at welding and went on to become one of the best junior welders in the world at a competition in Helsinki.
“We’re helping them to break the poverty cycle,” say the extremely proud project founders.”
“Where we’ve succeeded, we can say it’s because we’re all personally involved. This is where we live, and this is why we are all committed.”
ABOVE AND BEYOND
No matter the effort, there are still some who slip through the net. They either drop out or just don’t make it through matric. Even here, the Trust has thrown a safety net, in the shape of the Hospitality Training School of the Youth Empowerment Project, set in the heart of Colesberg.
Now in its third year, the hospitality school teaches youngsters the skills of waitressing, front desk and reception, housekeeping and basic cooking.
It’s a great match for a town like Colesberg, where every second building seems to be a guesthouse. In the first two years, every one of their graduates was placed, and there are now three working at the prestigious De Stijl Hotel at the nearby Gariep Dam.
- For more information, see www.hantam-trust.org.za or call 051 753 1419.
