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Social investment
The Datatec Educational and Technology Trust
Datatec's origins are firmly entrenched in South Africa and the Company has always been conscious of its responsibilities towards the community and economy that fostered its initial growth. The Datatec Educational and Technology Trust was established in March 2000 to support educational organisations with a specific focus on uplifting the standard and talent in the fields of mathematics, science and technology within previously disadvantaged communities.
Datatec has committed to funding of R4 000 000 each year for the activities of the Datatec Educational and Technology Trust and during the financial year ended 28 February 2010 the Trust has actively supported the following initiatives:
Vula Programme at Hilton College
The Vula Programme at Hilton College ('Vula' means 'Open' in isiZulu) was started in 2001 as the college's educational service provider to the under-resourced schools and disadvantaged communities in the region. At the time Datatec donated R3 million to build a Centre for Innovation. This Centre has been the base for Hilton College's maths, science and technology outreach programme.
As its primary focus, the programme uses up-to-date technologies, innovative teaching methods and experienced facilitators to concentrate on the upgrading of the teaching and learning of high school mathematics, physical science and technology.
The programme, as its secondary focus, is also active in Careers Guidance, with an emphasis on promoting professions which require maths and science skills.
All of the above are underpinned by a belief that access to, and competency in, information communication technologies must be an integral part of the Vula skills transfer process when providing relevant and meaningful programmes to its beneficiary communities.
In 2009 the programme worked with beneficiaries from about 90 high schools. These schools were in the greater Midlands area which extends from Pietermaritzburg in the south to Bergville in the north and from Bulwer in the west to Msinga in the east. More than half of the schools are in impoverished rural areas.
In 2009 the Datatec Educational and Technology Trust provided funding for the following programme components:
• The Vula Programme Annual Careers Day of Friday, 15 May
• The Grade 12 winter school for maths and science revision
• The Vula educators ICT training, enrichment and empowerment project (the first year of a three-year project).
Siyakhula Computer School
This year marks 10 years of Datatec's involvement with Siyakhula Education Foundation ("SEF") which is all the more notable with the recent announcement that the Siyakhula Computer School has been identified as a showcase example of an emerging social enterprise for the upcoming Social Enterprise World Forum to be hosted at the University of Johannesburg in April 2011. This exciting news follows on from the selection of IkamvaYouth in 2009 as a finalist in the Ashoka Changemakers "Champions of Quality Education in Africa" award and reaffirms that these achievements would not have been possible without the trust's continued support over the past decade. These accolades also speak to the growing impact and effectiveness of SEF's programmes, highlights of which for the year in review include:
• Over 500 students trained by the Computer School in 2009 which is thus on track to achieve financial and operational self-sustainability by the end of this year.
• The first matric group of IkamvaYouth Gauteng - SEF's academic support programme - will progress with 40% expected to access tertiary education in 2011 (none of whom would have done so without the IkamvaYouth programme).
• The extension of SEF's technology focus with the implementation of a schools ICT project with a first-year intake of 180 Grade 10 learners from three schools who will complete matric in 2012 with a National Certificate in Information Technology.
SEF's key targets for the year ahead include: securing the operational profitability of computer school; replicating the computer school model in a new location; piloting a community resource and internet eCafé; consolidating the Gauteng arm of IkamvaYouth with a view to establishing new branches in the future; and successfully implementing the first year of the schools ICT project.
The Datatec Trust sponsored the Programme Director's salary in 2008 and 2009 and will continue to do so in 2010.
The Maharishi Institute
The trust has committed to providing a network infrastructure for the Maharishi Institute. The Maharishi Institute is the sister campus of the globally recognised and successful CIDA City Campus, which is South Africa's first free university established in 2000. The Maharishi Institute aims to apply all the knowledge accumulated over the past eight years in the creation of CIDA, with fresh ideas and approaches to ultimately provide free education to 1 000 underprivileged students per year, starting in 2009. The self-sustaining model involves students working in a call centre on the campus thus earning a salary which enables them to pay tuition fees and support their families at home. The trust has approached a number of suppliers including Cisco to donate infrastructure equipment therefore making it a joint corporate effort.
Education Alive
Education Alive is part of Applied Scholastics International, a body that trains educators, parents, learners and college students in disadvantaged communities. The Education Alive training academy is in Wynberg, Cape Town and offers tuition to learners who struggle with maths, science, accounting, English and Afrikaans. Education Alive also offers courses like grammar, communication, their SAQA-approved study technology for learners as well as courses specifically aimed at educators. Tertiary graduates also have the benefit of Education Alive courses. A Fasset-sponsored work readiness programme for unemployed commerce graduates is also run on site. The programme has successfully been placing these graduates into the finance sector since 2005. An average of 80% of the trainees have been offered full learnership contracts. From 2010, an additional commerce sector programme will also be run, with a further 40 learners on site!
The trust bought the property out of which Education Alive operates and has committed to renovating the premises to create more space as the demand for its programmes has increased considerably over the past two years.
MaAfrika Tikkun
MaAfrika Tikkun is a non-governmental non-profit organisation that works toward the transformation of South African communities by caring for vulnerable children and orphans in townships. MaAfrika Tikkun operates in four communities in Gauteng (Alexandra, Hillbrow, Diepsloot and Orange Farm) and two in the Western Cape (Delft and Mfuleni) by assisting each community to set up Community Boards and Community Management Forums that take responsibility for the day-to-day activities and outreach programmes implemented in the community.
The trust has committed to upgrading MaAfrika Tikkun's National ICT Development and Operational Support Infrastructure which will enable MaAfrika Tikkun to provide comprehensive data which will be used to accurately track the conditions of families in distress as well as use the data to inform management of these social conditions on a proactive basis. The various project sites include: Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Hillbrow, Alexandra, Mfuleni and Delft. MaAfrika Tikkun already has spent considerable sums on designing an internal software programme which enables the caregivers to collect data at the coal face based on empirical data collected from daily shack visits. This information needs to be captured at each township site and needs to be analysed at Cape Town and Johannesburg head offices. This information serves as both a management tool and as a vital monitoring and evaluation system used to provide impact results of service delivery to donors, government departments and aid organisations.
This infrastructure will be utilised by the youth development programme inside the media centres/ computer labs, and by administrative staff to record and collate data. This infrastructure is an inseparable element of MaAfrika Tikkun's Holistic Circle of Care model, which will ensure that MaAfrika Tikkun can achieve what they have set out to accomplish in this respect.
Thuthuka Bursary Fund
The Thuthuka Bursary Fund is a SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) initiative and was established to provide full bursaries to between 250 and 300 Black African and Coloured students at selected SAICA-accredited universities. In 2010 Datatec committed to providing full bursaries to 10 students over a three-year period which is the time it will take for the students to complete their accounting degrees.
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