Education by the Mile, Education by the Book

This is an expansion on an email that I've written to some people. I've been working on several things over the last week but I wanted to use this post to draw attention to some things other volunteers have done that I'm trying to help out with.

Education by the Mile

In my experiences working with the schools, the amount of structural changes to improve a school seem overwhelming. It may take a generation of more before things truly improve to a level where all kids can really get quality education in rural regions. Faced with this, I believe one of the biggest ways to make a difference now, in addition to the long haul work, is to provide opportunities for the kids that really show potential so they can become the leaders of the next generation. Fortunately, some previous South Africa PCVs (now RPCVs) set up a program to do just that. It's called the KLM (Kgwale le Mollo) Foundation and it selects students with high potential in rural areas to join a prestigious private school, paying for tuition, living expenses, and a small stipend. To help fund this project, the PCVs set up a partnership with the Long Tom Marathon in Mpumalanga. On March 29, about 80 PCVs along with others from SA will be gathering to take part in the race (an ultra marathon, a half marathon, and a half marathon walk). Each PCV has been raising money for KLM. I'm taking part in the half marathon walk and am very excited. I began raising money a few weeks ago and things are going very well. I would like to thank the people who have already made a contribution. I've been especially pleased to see that the majority of my donors so far are my Brothers of Phi Kappa Psi, showing true dedication to our call to service.

Please take a look at the KLM Foundations: www.klm-foundation.org/

If you think this is a worthy cause, please donate whatever you can ($5 or $10 adds up fast). Fill in my name (A.J. Kumar) in the section to say who you are contributing in support of. With your help, we can be the top fund raising group this year!

Alternatively...

Education by the Book

One of my peers working in the NGO sector, Rose Zulliger, has put together an amazing project.
In partnership with Books for Africa, she is going to select 30 schools to each receive 1,100 books. It's always surprising to me to realize how few books there are in the rural communities and how little reading goes on. There's a lot of time to sit around and do nothing so with a little incentive and introduction, I feel like reading could really take off in such an area. My high school has a beautiful library with very few books. We've applied to Rose's program and if we are selected, we hope to use the books to build momentum behind a literacy program. Whether we get the books or not though, I am hoping to look to more sources for books and really push reading.

The books are provided free by Books for Africa. Once in country, Rose and other PCVs will sort through them all, deliver them to schools, and work to ensure they are utilized. The one missing ingredient is getting the books from America to South Africa. To pay for shipping, each school selected will have to raise R1500 (about $200) to contribute to the cause (also making them more accountable for the books since they are investing in them). For the rest of the money, Rose has set up a Peace Corps Private Partnership Proposal. Basically, this is a way to get donations from home to cover the rest of the costs. The site is not up yet, but will hopefully be soon. When it is, I'll be posting it. So if you feel this is a project that really strikes a chord with you, or if you just want to donate to BOTH causes, stay tuned.

My Education

Lastly, I want to reflect a bit on my own education over the last few weeks which also relates to another PCVs project. A fellow Education Volunteer, Saadiqa, works with a leadership camp group. She has put togehter a girls empowerment camp for rural students called Power Girls. I've spent the last several weeks working with my high school to select girls and help them apply for the program. Along the way, I've realized a lot about how interconnected problems really are.

After a lot of prodding and explaining, I got two of my teachers to work with me to finish the nomination forms. Based on leadership criterions, we selected 5 girls from our school. However, when it came to academic achievement, none of them met the 60% average cut off. Worse, NONE of the girls in that grade met the cut off. We decided to proceed anyways. As we worked with the girls, I soon discovered one is actually older than me. She was born in 1984 but she is in grade 9. My teachers insisted that she is a leader and that she now takes classes seriously. The next big surprise came when one of the girls said her father did not want her to do the program. This is an all expense paid, leadership development program. I could not see why he'd object. Then we talked to him and found out, the girl has a toddler at home. He had tried to warn her not to fool around but she did anyway and had a baby. As a result, he has told her, as long as she has a child at home, she will never sleep outside of the house. So going away for a week is out of the question. We decided to let her complete the application just to get practice at writing a CV and essays but we cannot allow her to apply because of her fathers stance. After reading her essays, I realized that she probably understands most of all the girls how important it is to be serious, and take a leadership role in the community, and she has learned a lot from her experience. Unfortunately, it seems she'll never get the chance to be forgiven her mistakes.


Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. As we PCVs work at the grass roots to help increase the quality of education, I want to thank all those who provide the financial support to allow us to do projects. For me, each of these three projects signifies a greater truth about the Peace Corps. Though scattered across a country in sometimes remote regions, we are part of joint venture, seeking to make a difference in this country. Working together, we can make great strides.