SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

CAROLYN HANCOCK THEMBELIHLE SCHOOL

Twenty-one years after being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, Carolyn Hancock has found herself at the forefront of three socially empowering projects that were close to her heart before she even knew it. Growing up in a middle-class home during the ’80s, Carolyn says her parents gave her every measure of the best education they could afford.

After completing chemotherapy, surgery, working through her PhD and raising two young children, her two driving passions – education and social justice – saw her establishing a new school in 2011. ‘Situated in Howick, KZN, Thembelihle School has 400 children from age three to 14,’ she says. ‘We have the most dedicated teachers and every academic facility a child could dream of.’

The project came to life after Carolyn came across 120 children in a makeshift classroom. They had one teacher who continued to teach despite the poor conditions. ‘There was a sand floor, no doors and windows, and no educational materials,’ says Carolyn. ‘Yet teaching and learning were still happening – because of this woman’s passion.’

In 2013, she was approached to become chairperson of Angels’

Care Centre, which corresponded with her knowledge of forensics and DNA. ‘I became acutely aware of the problem that many children who are victims of gender-based violence are facing in South Africa and the need for the use of DNA evidence.’

In 2015, Carolyn developed the first non-governmental model of a rape crisis centre, designed for children. The centre provides early childhood development facilities along with a range of social outreach programmes, and has helped 500 child victims of gender-based violence and 200 victims of extreme trauma.

Winning the Social Entrepreneur Award will help Carolyn to build on the programmes she runs, focus on adding a crèche facility in the early childhood development offering, and pay more attention to the youth in the community, many of whom are dropping out of school and abusing substances. ‘We’re in a position to offer life skills that could be lifechanging for these young people.’

‘We are in a position to offer life skills that could be life-changing.’