Outreach programme gets new home
Japhet says the most effective way to bring hope to underprivileged people is through education.
The new Japhet Outreach Centre at Uplands was officially opened by Miles and Jetje Japhet earlier this month.
Located adjacent to its existing building on the Uplands campus, the completed centre serves as a multi-purpose space which transforms to suit many of Uplands Outreach’s programme needs.
It can serve as a modern IT centre, lecture hall, classroom, and meeting space with offices.
The building is designed to continue facilitating programmes which serve the Insikazi Circuit’s school leaders, teachers, and learners on their quest to ‘raise achievement for all’.
“Uplands is truly honoured to dedicate The Japhet Outreach Centre to Miles and his family,” said Dr Nicky de Bruyn, director of Uplands Outreach, at the opening ceremony.
“As the former chairman of the board of directors at Uplands, Miles played an instrumental role in moving the school into a new chapter of growth in Mpumalanga, and into national prominence. His business acumen, common sense, and decency are well-known and he applied these readily to Uplands on all fronts as chairman, with outstanding results.”
She said that as the current chairman of Uplands Outreach, Japhet always makes time to provide strategic and tactical direction to this non-profit organisation, which works to boost educational results in disadvantaged schools in Mpumalanga.
As a result, an entire rural school circuit (comprised of 34 schools and more than 27 000 learners) in a former homeland area is seeing irrefutable results after eight years of solid input.
In addition, his support has provided a base whereby the organisation has quadrupled its fund-raising and is maximising its impact.
In return Japhet said that his involvement with Uplands Outreach started in 2001 as he had always felt that the most effective way to bring hope to underprivileged people was through education.
“We have gone from strength to strength under Nicky’s leadership and now boast the most effective education NGO in the Lowveld.”
He said the focused school leadership programme, in partnership with the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Education, was the key thrust that saw remarkable improvements in education outcomes over the years.
He thanked all supporters, especially corporates such as Standard Bank, Momentum, the Anglo-American Chairman’s Fund, and Makro for investing in their work.
“The support we have had from the Uplands community has been excellent. Apart from tax deductible benefits to small business owners who donated to Uplands Outreach, knowing that you are part of the solution, made it further worthwhile.”
He also thanked local businesses such as Multiknit, PPE Technologies, and Global Roofing Solutions for already being a part of the Uplands Outreach journey.
Uplands Outreach is an educational non-profit organisation operating in the rural Insikazi School Circuit established in 1994 by Uplands in order to boost educational standards in rural Mpumalanga.
