Learning Trust Support

For the second consecutive year awarenet has received support from The Learning Trust, an organisation which provides funding and capacity building to community-based education programmes focused on extended learning opportunities in the after-school space. In other words, the Learning Trust help all those small South African organisations such as awarenet which try to activate and educate kids after they are done with their school day. 

This is indeed a noble and necessary endeavour in the South African setting where many children are studying in overcrowded classrooms with limited access to textbooks, information technology and other learning resources. These children, particularly in urban areas, often do not have access to meaningful after-school activities, leading to boredom and sometimes self-destructive behaviour.

Grade 9 Core Group immersed in a brainstorming exercise

The awarenet team is therefore proud that the Learning Trust has found our after-school programme worthy of continued support. The Learning Trust states that after considering all organisations in Makhanda/Grahamstown they "saw an opportunity to support Awarenet as it is the only after-school organisation that provides accessibility to ICT infrastructure and programmes for school learners, teachers and community members, thereby strengthening educational outcomes, enabling technological innovation and creating increased access to information."

The collaboration with the Learning Trust will contribute to the continuation of our core group support program where a small group of learners are given weekly training in the use of ICT for educational purposes over several years, starting in grade 9 and ending after the completion of their schooling in grade 12. The original grade 9 we recruited last year have already successfully continued with our program into grade 10 while a new grade 9 group was recruited in the beginning of the school year.

Many thanks to the Learning Trust!

Grade 9 learners expressing themselves in our after-school space

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