From the Pen of our President....
Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,
There is so much
going on at the moment – got to have your wits about you to keep abreast of the
load shedding, the lockdown, the weather, the politics, the vaccines, the diet,
the exercise and the tablets!!
Quite exhausting isn’t it?? And none of that has anything to
do with Rotary!! We have DG Annemarie’s handover meeting (26th June), and we
have our own induction (2nd July) coming up – do you have them diarized??
You have heard about Rotary Discussion Groups? Discussion
Groups | My Rotary There are so many options – surely something will ‘tickle
your fancy’!! Take a look at all the options available and get involved – you
may enjoy reading what other people are doing, thinking, or discussing and you
could join in.
Have a wonderful week – see you all on Friday
Keep safe and
be ‘in the moment’!!
Yours in Rotary.
Ann
Last Friday.....
....We were privileged to be addressed by Paul Channon, who is the Director of the Alexandra Education Committee.
The AEC was founded in 1996 and its mission is to uplift the standard of education for children from the Alexandra township through offering high school bursaries, academic support programmes and school teacher training.
In 2020, despite the challenges of Covid, their 33 matric learners on bursaries attained a 100% pass rate, and 91% achieved a university entrance! In fact the average marks were the highest they had been in 5 years.
Other noteworthy achievements:
- offering Saturday and Holiday School programmes
- 100s of Alexandra primary school teachers trained in the gateway subjects
- Strong mentorship and sponsor support for "bursars"
- A very active Alumni Association - over 400 alumni, many holding professional positions.
The focus of the AEC is to identify high school learners of promise from the township of Alexandra who come from households of very limited means.
It is their intention of increasing the number of bursars significantly over the next 5 years, and they are constantly evaluating the quality of schools they send their bursars to, as well as investigating new possibilities. In respect of the schools they use, the AEC contributions are heavily subsidised by the schools themselves.
Their sponsors are asked to commit in supporting a child throughout high school from Grade 8 through to Matric.
The bursars attend Saturday Schools for lessons in Maths, Physical Science, Accounting and English.
Bursary placements for 2020 were at very diverse schools around Alexandra and it was great to see that Highlands North Boys High School had accepted 26 scholars into their bursary programme.
Bursary selection is a difficult and time-consuming process. Last year 350 applicants applied for the 176 places, and each application has to be evaluated in terms of the AEC criteria, namely, living in or close to Alex, having academic potential and being in a household of very limited income. Most of the candidates attend a Grade 7 Academic Enrichment Programme offered on a Saturday morning, where their progress is assessed throughout the year.
Furthermore the AEC also runs about 30 teacher workshops a year in Maths, English and Science to teachers in and around Alexandra. This is a much-valued and well-attended programme which strengthens education in Alex for maximum impact beyond their core business of selecting talented children for bursaries.
As an NGO the AEC receives no State funding and they are therefore fully dependent on donor funding. The offices and classrooms of Waverley Girls High School are utilized for the AEC Saturday programmes and teacher workshops.
What an inspiring initiative, worthy of being promoted and receiving public support.
Greetings Mr Dave.....
Just wanted to let you know that we collected Tony’s
wheelchair on Friday. We would like to say a very big thank you to Rotary on
his behalf. Thank you for carrying the community of Alexandra on Eagles wings
for all these years. You are the pillar of our township.
We keep discovering more and more people that are in need
and we are hoping and believing that Rotary will be able to come through for
us.
Yours forever in community service
Gcina Twala
Save the Date.....
And this Friday.....
Pam Donaldson will have the opportunity of telling us a little bit more of her story.
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