SHAWCO Education takes tutoring to the next level- provides professional intervention to 200 learners in Matric.

SHAWCO Education has been providing extra lessons in Maths, Science, English and Biology to learners in Cape Town Township for the past five years.  There is tremendous pride in watching the SHAWCO branded vehicles drive up to upper campus every afternoon where students hurry from the classrooms to go and teach.  They would have about 1300 learners eagerly awaiting their arrival in our four Education Centres in Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Kensington and Mannenberg. 

The Sector evolved over time and now has committees that plan the day to day activities.  About eighty student committee members and eight hundred volunteers plan and implement the tutoring, sports, arts, life skills and educational trips that benefits approximately 1300 young people. 

The constraints in achieving our goal of providing opportunities for the learners to go on to higher education institutions is that SHAWCO tries to achieve long term goals with short term volunteers. This is a challenge faced by many a volunteer-based Non Profit.  Secondly, students at varsity have restrictions on the amount of time they can spend in supporting the learners and thirdly, the skills gap, as we draw volunteers from various faculties, their knowledge of the subject and the professional teaching skills required to tutor learners in their final years of schooling.

Taking all of the above into consideration, SHAWCO launched a Saturday School and employed teachers to teach 200 learners in Maths, Science, English and Biology in 2008.  The initiative was welcomed and supported by the school principals and there was overwhelming enthusiasm from the learners.  Having raised funds for bursaries, SHAWCO is proudly sponsoring four promising young people to study at tertiary institutions next year, three to UCT and one to CPUT.  There is tremendous joy at SHAWCO to see the fruits of our endeavours in the form of these four promising young people who would have otherwise found it difficult to study at these institutions. 

Based on this success, we approached various UCT departments to partner and support the project which has led to the Schools Development Unit volunteering to be our advisor, the UCT Fundraising unit in Canada and Britain raising funds, residents at two UCT residences pledging to play the part of big brothers and sisters to these youngsters and finally, SHAWCO has decided to bus the 200 learners into UCT every Saturday from next year. 

We hope to provide an experience to the learners that would expose them to the university campus, be taught by professional teachers, provide professional career guidance and exposure to lab work (many of the schools do not have equipment) and  provide each learner with a student mentor.  Over and above all this, student volunteers are planning to provide ongoing academic support and mentorship to the SHAWCO bursary holders while they are at varsity so that throughput can be ensured. 

SHAWCO provides a continuous source of inspiration to all who come into contact with it.  Next year we add on 200 young people in our Saturday School at UCT who can further inspire us.  We will strive to provide South Africa with the kind of leaders necessary to lead the Rainbow Nation.   

SHAWCO has planned to launch a new sector over and above the existing Education and Health sectors. As required by the municipal counsellor of Khayelitsha, SHAWCO is investigating the possibility of assisting potential small business owners in skills training and the establishment of small business within the community. The initiative will be jointly supported by the SHAWCO student business programme (Masizikulise) in helping to provide skills to these community members. As a first step, two women’s circles have been established, currently working out of the SHAWCO K1 centre. The woman’s circles’ first initiative is their link to the “Rags to Riches” project, whereby second hand clothing is bought by the women from the womens’ circle and then sold in their communities to generate an income. The women develop skills , support each other in their business endeavours and motivate each other.

We hope that many business ideas will emerge from these endeavours.