| This is because the student undertakes to contribute to the next child’s education once they have graduated. “It’s their way of saying to the community, ‘I’ve had an opportunity, now it’s time to create an opportunity for another’. And so education continues,” Lesley explains.
The student also undertakes to work hard. Money for fees is merely loaned until the student qualifies, at which point it becomes a bursary. If a child fails to complete a course, their parents must reimburse whatever fees the Trust has paid up to that point.
It’s a system that works: almost every successful graduate so far has found full-time employment and there have been only a few drop-outs. Financially, this means young adults are finding places for themselves in the economy. And it means that the local community, disadvantaged by both history and geography, is starting to benefit from its own investment in its daughters and sons.
Parents often ask how to thank the project’s founders, Lesley Osler, Clare Barnes-Webb and Anja Pienaar. Says Lesley: “We say, ‘Our thanks will come from seeing your child take responsiblity for his or her life and using the opportunities offered by the Trust.”
That’s the other benefit, one that won’t slot into an auditor’s columns. It’s the way a person feels when they know they can be something.
|
