Digital age brought to rural village
GWF now operates five digital learning campuses, named the "Hazyview Cluster" after the largest campus and combined, the campuses reach over 7 000 rural people every week.
The digital learning revolution continues to grow in Bushbuckridge with award-winning South African non-profit, Good Work Foundation (GWF), last week opening a fifth digital learning campus in Dumphries village, adjacent to the Greater Kruger National Park.
Together with its partners, Sir Richard Branson’s Ulusaba, Dulini Private Game Reserve, Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve, Inyati Private Game Reserve, the Sabi Sand Pfunanani Trust, the All Heart Fund, and the Dumphries community, GWF officially launched the Dumphries Digital Learning Campus on July 26, a high-tech campus that will benefit adults and schoolchildren from the community.
GWF’s core programmes are already operational at Dumphries. The Bridging Academy is a year-long course that enables adults to become proficient in skills that are required in a 21st century workplace, bridging the gap between high school work and further studies. The Open Learning Academy focuses on English literacy, maths literacy, digital literacy, environmental awareness, and life skills for schoolchildren.
GWF now operates five digital learning campuses, named the “Hazyview Cluster” after the largest campus and combined, the campuses reach over 7 000 rural people every week. The Hazyview Cluster is endorsed by the Mpumalanga Department of Education and critical to the regions objective of delivering education technology to people, even those living in South Africa’s remotest regions.
Speaking on behalf of the Sabi Sand Pfunanani Trust as well as the four private game reserves that have partnered to fund the Dumphries campus, Isaac Hlatswayo, community liaison manager for the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, expressed gratitude for the project’s spirit of collaboration.
“On this day we celebrate what can be achieved when like-minded people and businesses collaborate strategically for the benefit of our country’s future,” he said. “It is also a day of personal significance as I am a child of this village and I am thrilled to see education innovation reaching here.”
Hendrick Louw, of Suez Capital, said of the launch: “You instilled in us a renewed sense of hope for our nation, for which we are grateful.”
GWF is one of the few NGOs in South Africa focusing on digital learning opportunities for young adults and pupils living in rural communities. GWF does this via digital learning campuses and has started the process of adding enterprise start-ups to the campuses to complete an ecosystem of learning and working. At the Hazyview Digital Learning Campus, there is a fully operational IT service desk where clients include T-Systems, Eskom, and FiatChrysler. GWF’s adult education programmes create digital citizens capable of starting their own businesses or entering the digital marketplace, including the on-campus enterprise.
Profits from the enterprise in turn contribute to the programme for children, focusing on self-organised learning environments, and now coding and robotics as well.
GWF is the 2018 Reimagine Education Gold Award winner for tech in education, and the Silver Award winner overall for the African continent. For more information about GWF, visit www.goodworkfoundation.org and to visit the GWF Dumphries Digital Learning Campus, email info@goodworkfoundation.org.
