Money raised built school in Africa
Nick Eastmond, an instructional technology professor, is thrilled with the success of his students.
It’s not amazing grades that have Eastmond proud though. Instead Eastmond has watched students over the past two years in his honors class, Race in Communication in the United States and the new South Africa, raise money to build a school there. Now the school is up and running.
“It’s like the students understood something I didn’t understand,” Eastomond said. “Here we were learning about all theses problems and after so long you can become apathetic or cynical. Instead, the students came up with the idea of doing something about it.”
The idea to raise money for the group IFESH (International Foundation for Education and Self-Help) which builds schools in Africa with donations was first brought up in the spring of 1999, Eastmond said. His honors class at the time started raising the money and the goal continued on with Eastmond’s classes in the spring and fall of 2000.
“There’s a whopping need for schools over there,” Eastmond said, who spent a year in South Africa in 1996 while on sabbatical.
The students headed many different fund raisers for the project including dorm-storming, asking for donations and a walk-a-thon in April 2001 that generated nearly half the amount of the full donation. Students and their family members and friends as well as members of the community walked a three-mile course for donations.
Eastmond also said they received help and donations from the USU Black Student Union, Black Scholars United of Weber State University, Instructional Technology Student Association, Edith Bowen Elementary School, World-Wide Education and Research Institute, James Barta’s Utah State elementary education classes, as well as citizens of the community and other family members and friends.
More than $8,330 was raised and donated to IFESH for the building of an elementary school. Another $6,000 was combined with that amount from the New Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia and a school was built.
The school, Edukulwenia, is located in the eastern cape of South Africa near the town Port St. Johns, Eastmond said. Emily Ballard, a former student of Eastmond’s who was involved in the fund raising, and her husband Steve are currently in South Africa teaching English and had the opportunity to visit the school built by the students’ donations.
The couple traveled in a small four-wheel jeep with Bill Boley, a 60-year-old retired American patent lawyer and professional photographer, on dirt roads that were at times so bumpy and dangerous they almost had to turn back.
“The view was serene with traditional style Xhosa [a major native tribe of South Africa] houses, circular with straw thatched roofs, spread throughout the mountainside. We stopped for herds of goats to cross the road and dodged between cattle that were too stubborn to move,” Steve said.
After staying the night in a tiny wood shack, smaller than a college dorm room with a community shower and bathroom as well as hundreds of mosquitos, the Ballard’s and Boley visited the school.
The children were scared of the Americans at first, but soon warmed up to the visitors and were posing for pictures.
“Some of them have just barely got the clothes on their back and no shoes,” Eastmond said.
Emily said the schoolhouse is made of red brick and has four classrooms. There are five female teachers and about 168 students in grades one through six. The school teaches geography, math, history, science, agriculture, health education, AIDS awareness, Xhosa, African and English.
The Edukulwenia school is still in great need of supplies such as pens, pencils, maps, rulers and science materials, Emily said.
The need for education and resources in Africa is more than noticeable, Eastmond said.
“The number of people who need to be educated and are chomping at the bit to be educated is incredible,” Eastmond said.
The rise of education is not the only change occurring in Africa. Eastmond said now 20 percent or more of the citizens there are HIV positive and Steve predicts it is even higher. Also, the dissolve of the “apartheid,” an era where blacks were considered underclass and denied civil rights, in the early 90s has changed the face of South Africa.
“Being here in South Africa has provided us with a sort of reality check. We are humbled to realize our small place in the world as a whole. It is a chance to see where we are at and what direction we are headed in. May we all make the most of our time in America, the land of opportunity,” Steve said.
For more information on IFESH visit www.ifesh.org or call 1-280-443-1800.