Radically altering the fortunes of South Africa's future women leaders

Friday, 9 August 2013

No one would have imagined that a gathering in Sandton for a Women's Day function in 2011 would drastically alter the lives of over 400 schoolgirls in rural Lady Frere, in the Eastern Cape, culminating in their own celebration on Women's Day 2013. But this is precisely what happened.

The female members of the Executive at the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), South Africa's second largest medical scheme, Ms Bella Mfenyana, Ms Karyna Pierce, Ms Liziwe Nkonyana and Ms. Jeannie Combrink and a number of GEMS' service providers attended a Women's Day celebration at the Inanda Club in Sandton.

"A talk by Sister Dzebu, a dedicated professional nurse who was a winner of a category in the Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year Award in 2010, struck a chord with me," recalls Mfenyana. "She made me realise that by providing sanitary towels to schoolgirls who could not afford them, you could change their lives, by restoring their dignity. I went back to the office to see if we could somehow raise money to help young women," says Mfenyana.

This set in motion a process that could radically alter the fortunes of South Africa's future women leaders. As part of GEMS' corporate social investment (CSI) initiative, the Scheme, whose principal members are mostly women, adopted Mount Arthur Senior Secondary School in rural Lady Frere, in the Eastern Cape, as a benefactor of its sanitary towels programme. At the time Mount Arthur, a boarding school for girls, which has strong ties to the Methodist Church and is steeped in tradition, was hindered by poverty and high teenager pregnancy rates.

"What started as a small project at the school, which has produced quality leaders, such as our current Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC Xoliswa Tom, had by 2013 given rise to an incredible partnership between GEMS and our service provider networks," reveals Mfenyana. "When we launched the programme at Mount Arthur Senior Secondary School, we called on our service providers to assist. This led to an incredible groundswell," observes Mfenyana.

"First our service providers contributed towards a basic dignity gift pack for each girl, then Medipost Pharmacy, which delivers medicine to our members, adopted the school as one of its CSI projects and paid for a matron, Ms. Nomfundo Mchunu, to be appointed to the school hostel. We realised during last year's assessment that the project had taken on a life of its own. We again appealed to our service providers to pledge towards a common project so that tangible results could be realised," reveals Mfenyana.

"When GEMS invited Medipost to become involved with Mount Arthur Senior Secondary School, we were so touched by the students' plight that we decided to allocate a budget to expand the project. Lovely Ntsoane, Medipost's Marketing and Liaison Manager, was appointed as project manager. As part of her role measurable and sustainable objectives were finalised to enable holistic learning, such as teaching the students healthy living, technical skills, grooming and social development skills," says Dr Brigalia Bam, Medipost's Chairperson.

"The involvement of all these parties has given a new spark to the school, improving academic results and reducing the amount of teenage pregnancies," says Mfenyana. "The learners' articulation skills, command of English, and the way they carry themselves have improved significantly," adds Mfenyana.

Today, 9 August 2013, we can report that:

• The Eastern Cape's Department of Education has contributed over R7 million to hostel renovations and work has commenced. This is part of its contribution towards improving the learning environment to encourage better academic results.
• In 2012 Ms Mchunu was appointed hostel matron for a five-year period. Since her arrival she has focused on encouraging positive psychology and behavioural change in the girls by motivating them to participate in extramural activities, which they never had before. This year her focus has been on academics. "Last year when I asked the girls what they wanted to become in life, they could not tell me. Now that they have met many successful past pupils, they have great ambitions," says Mchunu.
• Medipost has donated a 30-seater computer lab, hostel matron salary and resources, vehicle, stipends for the mentors and sewing machines. It is also paying the salary of a retired nurse from the local community to run the school's clinic.
• Lady Frere Resource Centre is offering computer lessons at the school, which have since been made compulsory for Grade 10-12 pupils.
• The Eastern Cape's Department of Health has given permission for a clinic to be set up at the school and finalised a memorandum of understanding.
• PrimeCure is supplying the clinic with all the required equipment.
• The Eastern Cape's Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture has supplied the school with netball kits, poles, board games and mentors for all planned extramural activities.
• The school entered a team into the Department of Economics and Environmental Affairs annual competition, which carries a cash prize of R20 000 per district and R100 000 provincially. The department also started a recycling project at the school.
• Queenstown Girls High, an English medium school, has agreed to twinning activities between the two schools in debating, netball and teachers' workshops.
• The girls are being supplied with more nutritional meals. Bunono Engineers and CSIR have assisted with this. The school has been turned into a centre of food production, where the children and their parents are being taught food security and how to plant crops. Surplus food will be shared with the surrounding communities and sold at local shops.
• Metropolitan Health has supplied agricultural equipment and stockings for all the scholars.
• Reverend Kutu from the Methodist Church and community leaders have allocated two hectares of land for the agricultural project.
• The Eastern Cape's Department of Public Works has agreed to provide artisans for infrastructural needs.
• EuropAssistance has provided books for the school's library.
• Medscheme has contributed dining hall furniture, home economics class equipment, music instruments and bed linen.
• OptiClear has agreed to supply screening and spectacles for scholars who need them.
• Learners have been taught arts and crafts and some are making pocket money from their work.

"This incredible partnership has created a case study for how the public and private sector could work together to truly transform South Africa," says Dr Bam.

"It has developed a model for the Eastern Cape's Department of Education that can be replicated throughout the province and nationally, adds Mfenyana. "The success of such a project rests not only on the support of the public and private sector but by obtaining buy-in from the school principals, teachers, students and their parents as well as surrounding communities. Without this such a project could never have succeeded," observes Mfenyana.

"Mount Arthur's young female learners have taken ownership of their school from growing vegetables to sewing. The key now is how to make these changes sustainable," reflects Mfenyana. She believes this can be done by encouraging current mentors to identify future leaders among the school's learners.