Firstly I would like to thank all our high school scholarship sponsors very much for your sponsorship and the positive difference this is making for the children/youth of our community.
This year we have 8 students being sponsored at St Johns College in Mthatha. The students and sponsors are listed below:
Avela Mnukwa – Grade 10 – Brett Scott – South Africa
Nosiphelele Zimele – Grade 10 – Coffee Shack
Sibonisiwe Hambisa – Grade 10 – Sandra Tracy Trust – Australia
Aphiwe Sinyeke – Grade 11 – Coffee Shack
Noluvo Vulindlela – Grade 11 – Christian Andreas – Germany
Hardy Gaqa – Grade 12 – Danny Whitley – Australia
Sandi Tshemese – Grade 12 – Coffee Shack
Khanyisa Nyubatyha – Grade 12 – Sandra Tracy Trust – Australia
The good news is that all the students have settled into St Johns College well – old and new. I saw them on Friday when they had a Valentines Show at the school and I went to drop off text books for them. I walked around Mthatha for 4 hours searching for text books on one of the hottest days of the year. I was not too succesful and only returned to St Johns College with 3 text books. When I eventually got back to Coffee Bay at 17h00 on the Coffee Shack Shuttle, I was so hot and tired, that I did not check my footing and walked straight out of the shuttle into a cement trench, which made wonderful scratch patch marks and colourful bruising on my arms and legs!
The 3 new grade 10 students were selected on an academic basis this year for the first time, and their home circumstances were taken into consideration. We had to make this change, as too many of our students were really struggling with maths and science, and quite a few students who had been suspended from the programme over the years, was due to failing these 2 subjects. I am currently sourcing a maths/science tutor in Mthatha to give our students some extra lessons that are really needed.
Talking about lessons, below are the students that were sponsored during 2009 and their year-end aggregate marks:
Khanyisa Nyubatyha – grade 11 – 45.8% (maths 18%)
Sandi Tshemese – grade 11 – 44% (science 19%)
Hardy Gaqa – grade 11 – 61.4%
Noluvo Vulindlela – grade 10 – 49.1%
Aphiwe Sinyeke – grade 10 – 46.5%
Unfortunately 2 students were suspended from the scholarship programme at the end of 2009, due to not passing their year – they were Songezo Krwexeysha (grade 11) and Zukisa Sotomela (grade 10). I have seen Songezo recently and am glad to say that he is repeating his grade 11 at a school in Mqanduli about 70km away from Coffee Bay; I have not seen Zukisa, so I do not know what he is doing.
The students will be making contact with their sponsors during the Easter school holidays, thereafter it is my mission to get them all e-mail literate, so they can send their sponsors mails themselves.
Please could you reply to the students letters via letter, as most of them have never received anything by mail before, so it is a good experience for them!