Taking on Kilimanjaro for sake of EC schools
Motivational speaker goes an extra mile
AN EASTERN Cape-born motivational speaker recently conquered Mount Kilimanjaro to focus attention on poor conditions at schools in the province.
Carrying a banner that read “Fair conditions for Eastern Cape schools”, Welile Mbolekwa from Sterkspruit, who started his trip on June 6, summited Uhuru Peak on Kilimanjaro last Friday.
The 38-year-old runs a nonprofit organisation called WOZA varsity and said the campaign was to do away with mud schools, poor sanitation and “educational incapacity”, and improve the pass rate in Eastern Cape schools.
“This is not only government problem, it should be our problem to fix,” said Mbolekwa.
He said climbing the mountain was to raise awareness of his campaign he calls the “9010 Vision” to help Eastern Cape schools achieve a 90% matric pass rate in 10 years.
“The climb was just the first step to raise awareness.
“The next step is to host initiative, invite business people, private and public sector to raise enough money to buy decent insulated modular classrooms that are fitted with desks and to give support in science and ICT labs and other learning materials,” said Mbolekwa.
Mbolekwa said hurdles facing schools, such as poor infrastructure, lack of sanitation, educational support, ICT and teacher shortages were the reasons why he started this campaign.
Growing up in the rural Eastern Cape, Mbolekwa says he knows first-hand the challenges of attending a school built with inappropriate structure and lacked resources.
“I attended a typical Eastern Cape School under the rural Transkei homeland.
“The school had one proper block for higher classes and a stone and mud block for lower classes. The school’s structure always gave problems as it always needed renovations, collapsed and was life-threatening to learners.
“When I was 11 years old I attended a music competition at another school that had a suspended wooden floor which was rather quite corroded.
“The floor collapsed with a group of learners, including my nine-year-old sister who twisted her little arms and I had to pull her out the rubble.
“It’s quite traumatic and it’s one of the reasons I am determined to drive measurable change in our infrastructure and quality of education,” he said.
Speaking about his climb, Mbolekwa, who was accompanied by mountain guide William Fidelis, said although he sometimes had difficulty breathing, giving up was not an option.
“We walked up the steepest slope, which was very challenging with volcanic sand moving beneath my feet. I had difficulty breathing because the air there is very thin.
“At one stage William thought of aborting the climb but I told him that I was here for Uhuru Peak and I am not turning back.”
After a lot of praying, Mbolekwa reached the mountain peak.
Anyone who would like to get hold of Mbolekwa to learn more or assist with this initiative can reach him on 083-692-6514. —