The work Mandela dreamed about

It was a night of laughter, tears and inside jokes at the Partners for Possibility North Coast 3 closing celebration event held at Simbithi Country Club on Friday night, wrapping up another successful year of the programme.

Launched in 2010 by non-profit organisation Symphonia for South Africa, Partners for Possibility (PfP) is an internationally recognised, award-winning leadership development initiative. The unique programme partners business leaders with principals from under-resourced schools in a year-long, collaborative and practical journey.

The programme launched on the North Coast in January 2017. Learning process facilitator Terry Dearling said the programme keeps improving.

“It gets better each year as people get to know how it works and we get a lot more support from the community as they see how effective it is. Everything wants to be involved with something that’s successful.”

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This year there were 10 partnerships involving schools on the North Coast, impacting about 8500 pupils.

“The principals are given the tools and support to become more motivated,” explained Terry.

“They apply that to their senior leadership team which filters down to the teachers, who are more energised to lead. That feeling of being left out and having no support goes away.”

It was clear that throughout the year the partners had forged strong friendships built on mutual respect, trust, and working together to overcome serious obstacles. Somehow, they seemed to have fun doing it as well!

CEO and founder of Partners for Possibility, Louise van Rhyn, praised the North Coast team.

“This is a case of citizens saying yes to a situation and making magic happen,” she said.

“I am so inspired by the power of human connection, and when people meet with open hearts and open minds and an open will. I keep thinking that this is the work that Mandela dreamed about.”

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The next programme starts in January and it is already fully subscribed but Dearling is always open to having new people on board.

“We are always looking for more people to get involved because there are about 20 000 under-resourced schools in this country,” she said.

So far this programme has impacted 11000 schools, so there is still a way to go.”

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