#Standyourtruth - Mandisa Mndela

Kim Hunter
Mar 31, 2017
3 min read

The adults of our Rainbow Nation are out everyday, trying to find the money to put food on the table. This means that the children are left to care for themselves or to be cared for by someone who is simply too old and tired to have the patience children require. This leaves the children vulnerable to many of the negative aspects of human nature - rape, emotional and physical abuse, bullying, gangs and so on. These children have no one to talk to about their lives - they can only dream of something better. These dreams may motivate them to study hard to enable them to get as far as university where they either drop out because they have not been prepared for this or end up obtaining degrees which do not help them get work. These young adults have no one to talk to and help guide them in life. This has left us with a society of adults who either have degrees / diplomas working menial jobs just to put food on the table or are school drop-outs looking to make a quick buck however they can.

Mandisa Mndela is working hard to change this awful situation. Her life experience has brought her to a point where Stand Your Truth is making a difference. Aside from the three books she has written, she has devised a Life Skills Curriculum for grade 8 - 12 learners which is being implemented at St. John's College in Umtata and the University of Johannesburg in collaboration with the Walter Sisulu University: Social Work Department, who provided Social Workers to facilitate the Curriculum. Mandisa realised that children were not being encouraged to connect learning with who they are. In her initial contact with the learners she observed that the majority of the children wanted to study medicine - not because they wanted to be doctors, but because they believed that doctors made a lot of money. The truth is that you cannot be a happy human working a job (if you manage to finish the required studies and then obtain a job on qualifying) if it does not connect with who you are. This is part of the reason why there are so many university drop-outs and why so many students change their majors.

There are many obstacles in the path leading to the fulfillment of this dream. The biggest is getting people to step out of the box - things don't change when you keep doing them the same way. The next is accountability. Our Department of Education is very much 'in the box' and she is being pushed from pillar to post with each saying that allowing implementation is not their role - or the catch-22, 'show us results' when no permission is given. And, of course, the one obstacle that always falls in the way of innovation is money. However, she has an indomitable spirit and is not letting any of these stop her. She has a 'Committee' of support including Mrs Tobo Thabede who has been instrumental in implementing the Curriculum in Umtata where is has shown such positive results. The school has had a Matric pass rate of more than 90% for the past 5 years. Even with such a high pass rate, many of the A students struggled at university and many dropped out or continuously changed courses over the years. When Stand Life Skills was introduced in 2015, the number of award winning learners doubled. Along with this, the number of university drop-outs has decreased.

As part of the Curriculum, a free-to-download chat app was developed - this can be used by anyone. It has given the students a platform where they can connect with each other and share experiences. The platform has three categories: one for teenagers, one for young adults and the third for adults.

It was encouraging and gratifying that Mr Marc Le Chat (President, CSA Global), Mr Emmanuel Mwamba (Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa) and Professor Rukudzo Murapa (University of Johannesburg) each had something positive to say on the determination of Ms Mndela to see this introduced into the country's education system. It was an evening of lows and highs, but inspirational none-the-less.

Do you #standyourtruth?

www.standyourtruth.com

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