Youth unemployment in South Africa is dire, with one in three young people without a job in 2018.
Education is essential to improve these worrying statistics. At the Tomorrow Trust, a non-profit organisation founded in 2005, orphaned and vulnerable children from across the country are given all the necessary tools and skills to complete their schooling through a holistic approach to teaching and fostering a love for maths and physical sciences. The Datatec Foundation sponsored sixty Grade 9 and 12 orphaned and vulnerable learners to participate in the Trust’s senior holiday and Saturday school programme in 2018.
The Datatec Foundation has been a financial contributor of the Tomorrow Trust since 2013, as it sees the huge potential this organisation has to offer our children engagement, self-growth and understanding. “Every child should have the same opportunities, and the Tomorrow Trust recognises that every child has the potential to succeed if given the chance,” says Wilna de Villiers, Marketing and Communications Manager for Datatec.
Each student is carefully and individually evaluated, to establish specialised needs that can’t be met by a “one size fits all” mentality towards education. “In this way, from the very beginning, we build a tailored programme to help each student feel like they belong and where he or she needs assistance the most,” Rae explains.
Grade 7 learners graduate to the senior Saturday and holiday school programme, a comprehensive academic and psycho-social support programme focusing on building and strengthening understanding and prowess in English, mathematics, life sciences and physical sciences. The goal is to enable learners to pass their National Senior Certificate with improved results, which in turn will enable them to access tertiary-education opportunities.
The Tomorrow Trust has seen huge improvements in their learners’ performances, and their 2018 Matric results were particularly impressive, with their pupils achieving a collective 72 distinctions.
Visit www.tomorrow.org.za for more information.