PASSION FOR DRAMA
Love of life radiates outward
Q: You turned a career in the performing arts – particularly in theatrical storytelling for children – into one as an education activist. What sparked this change?
CM: In 2013, my mother sent me my sister’s not-so-good school report. I was so worried about her future that I had to do something. As you know, in South Africa it is hard to make a decent living if you do not have a matric, especially for young people coming from low-income homes. My husband and I started the programme informally in 2014 after I struggled to find a tutoring organisation closer to Site B that could accommodate my sister. Q: Do you see similarities between the two careers in terms of crafting content that’s engaging and stimulating for young people?
CM: Yes, I do! In fact, we take the pupils to the theatre once a term to stimulate critical thinking through discussions and reflection essays. We also turn the lessons into games. We once invited poets to come and teach English grammar – the pupils never forgot their parts of speech after that! So you can see I never did completely change careers. As part of academic support, we invite young black professionals to come and share their success stories. It’s powerful when pupils see and hear someone with a similar background to theirs end their story with, “In the end, despite my circumstances, I made it.” Q: Tell us a little about your operations.
CM: We hold classes in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. We have two branches: one is in Site B at the local library. The second one is in Site C at Intlanganiso Secondary School. We’re currently supporting 100 pupils between grades 8 and 12. The pupils self-select to be in the programme. Q: Do you find pupils struggle to have appropriate resources in the form of textbooks and other books at libraries?
CM: Having access to books in one’s mother tongue and English can enable children to be powerful pupils, but at too many schools pupils have the wrong textbooks, or are not allowed to take their textbooks home and have to share with their classmates. To assist pupils with extra resources, we give them hand-outs and photocopy past question papers. Q: We’re pretty interested in programmes that get children reading – it seems to be the key to subject success. How are you able to encourage reading and writing support?
CM: In the English sessions that we run with the pupils, we are always making them write reflection essays – these are often linked to theatre outings. We refer to these outings as the Culture Club. We’re planning to launch a Book Club soon where they will share books and write their own stories. Q: Education changes lives. What kind of growth and results have you seen?
CM: Witnessing pupils work hard at school so they can be breadwinners at home, is an emotional journey. When we started the programme, we met a pupil who had failed Grade 8 three times – his mother said we were his last resort. His English level was at a Grade 4 level. To help him to improve, we put him in touch with some of our friends that run a Teaching English as a Foreign Language school. He went there most days after school. That experience gave him so much confidence and helped him improve his results. He managed to pass grades 8 and 9 with improvements of up to 30% in mathematics and English. Q: How have you managed to get this incredibly important project off the ground? What would help you to do more?
CM: The project is personal to me. I grew up in Khayelitsha and understand the dynamics of the environment – how it can be toxic and suffocating to people who want to succeed.
We currently have a deficit in our outings budget and would really like donations towards it. We see these excursions as just as important as the academic support as some of the pupils have never been outside of Khayelitsha. They live in a beautiful city which they don’t get to experience. How can you imagine more than your sum total of life experience?
In the near future we would love to branch out to the Eastern Cape. To do this we will need partnerships. We would welcome anyone that is keen to see young people succeed in South Africa to get in touch.