I had one of those wonderful reminders on 6 October, when fellow Flow writer Stuart Dickinson and I were assigned to the TEACH South Africa year-end function, to produce stories and pictures for their website.
For those of us unfamiliar with TEACH, it promotes quality education for all of South Africa’s children by recruiting graduates as ambassadors, who volunteer two years of their lives to teach in some of our country’s most disadvantaged schools.
This is national service in its purest form: they selflessly postpone their own careers to help give thousands of youngsters whose prospects are tenuous, at best, a shot at achieving their own dreams.
The event was the culmination of a big Flow team effort, including the creation of an accompanying booklet that profiles all of the 2011/12 ambassadors. Says Flow’s TEACH South Africa project manager, Roshni Nana: “It’s not often that a project touches your heart like this one does – but it’s impossible to not be moved by the TEACH Ambassadors’ incredible stories. It’s a privilege for us to tell them.”
Stuart, who’d been responsible for most of the booklet’s writing, knew what to expect at the function.
“Hearing their stories of heartache, frustration and joy has been eye-opening and inspiring,” he says. “I have huge respect for these young professionals, who gave entirely of themselves in attempting to turn around the sorry state of education in this country.
“I think all of them succeeded in some way, not just by increasing each respective school’s pass rate, but by enriching learners with the tools necessary to succeed in life.”
The stories we heard were hair-raising: appalling working conditions, a lack of basic resources, illiterate and drug-addled learners, crime, language barriers, resistance from colleagues and more. Some admitted they had wanted to give up many times.
But the stories were equally uplifting: how Ambassadors started a debating team, got kids to embrace mathematics, created a library, or started ballroom dancing classes. They begged, borrowed and liberated, and used every angle they could think of, to make things happen – and they made a huge difference to some of the most deprived learners in South Africa.
And, with their two-year stints now at an end, it was incredible to see how driven they remained about the importance of good education; how excited they were about what they had achieved – and how many of them want to continue teaching.
Says Ingrid Pearce, TEACH South Africa’s marketing and fundraising manager: “TEACH year-end functions always underscore the dire circumstances of many of our country’s children – but without exception, our TEACH Ambassadors represent an indefatigable human spirit and an ethos of unstintingly giving to those who deserve a better future. They make me proud to be a part of TEACH South Africa.”
It’s one thing meeting one person who inspires others; it’s another being in a room full of them. And I went home afterwards, my cynical edge blunted once more.