ANNUAL REPORT

for Fiscal Year ending 30 June 2004

This report covers the period July 2003 to June 2004 (the organisation’s first full fiscal year) as well as highlights of activities from July through November 2004. In November 2004, by action of the membership at our Annual General Meeting, we changed our name from Southern Africa Environment Project-SA to South African Education and Environment Project (“SAEP”) to describe more accurately the organization’s objectives and activities.

As in the previous reporting period, our programmes were also supported financially by our sister organization, Southern Africa Environment Project (SAEP-US), an educational and charitable corporation registered in the United States. Our programmes benefited significantly from the synergy between the two organizations and the support from both local and foreign donors.

Executive Summary

In 2004, SAEP consolidated and expanded all three of its major educational programmes: early childhood development, high school academic support and enrichment, and post-matric leadership and development. As in the preceding year, the primary communities served were Brown’s Farm (Philippi); Samora Machel (Weltevreden Valley); and Nyanga East, impoverished but rapidly growing black townships located 20 to 25 kilometres to the east of Cape Town city centre.

· Early Childhood Development. Launched in early 2003 with support for a single crèche (Noncedo Educare), this project grew in 2004 to a fully-fledged programme providing a wide range of support services -- from fund-raising and administrative support to improvement and expansion of facilities -- at all ten pre-schools in Ward 35 of the Brown’s Farm township. To share challenges and resources, these ten centres have organized themselves as the Safety Unity Crèche Forum.

Jane Keen, the Director of SAEP, who has twenty-five years experience in social work in Cape Town, manages this aspect of SAEP’s work. Early Childhood Development was the fastest growing of SAEP’s programmes and brought significant improvements in the capacity of the crèches to serve approximately 775 children between the ages of zero and six.

· High School Academic Support and Enrichment. In 2004, this programme was expanded from Sinethemba High School in Brown’s Farm to include two neighbouring schools, Zisukhanyo in Samora Machel and Oscar Mpetha in Nyanga East. SAEP’s vision is to develop these three schools into a “triangle of excellence” through an innovative cluster of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities that can serve also as a model for interventions in other township high schools.

SAEP’s after-school and weekend activities concentrate on development of English language skills, creative expression, and critical thinking (all needs expressed by the students themselves); improving academic performance in mathematics, science, accounting, and other subjects as resources permit; and gaining practical skills in the use of computers. The innovative nature of SAEP’s high school interventions was recognized by the prestigious Shuttleworth Foundation in the award of a grant of R102,000 to SAEP to develop mathematics, science, and technology in its three high schools in 2005.

· Post-matric Youth Leadership and Development. For the second year, SAEP’s unique “gap year” internship programme provided five recent high school graduates a range of opportunities for personal growth and development while at the same time involving them in community service as tutors and mentors in SAEP’s academic support and enrichment programmes. High school learners rarely receive academic and career counselling at school and even the brightest are likely to have significant gaps in their preparation for further education. The gap year programme provides a transitional experience for such youth, enabling them to improve their academic qualifications and life skills.

At the same time, they can explore possible careers and the academic or training routes that can prepare them to reach their goals. Improved critical thinking skills and opportunities for creative self-expression in the arts, through publication and performance, is another important dimension of their SAEP experience. This year’s interns received demanding leadership training and challenging academic and artistic experiences while coaching, nurturing, and serving as role models and mentors for younger students in our three core schools.

I. EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Fund Raising and Donations

SAEP plays a major role by assisting the crèches in raising funds and donations in kind. This includes administrative assistance in qualifying, financially and otherwise, for grants; filing registrations and funding applications; managing their funds; and obtaining financial audits required by governmental and private donors. During the year under review, SAEP raised R38,604 that was distributed directly to the members of the Safety Unity Crèche Forum. Since July 1, 2004, there have been a number of other cash donations, large and small, that have made a significant difference to the crèches.

Not included in this total are funds received directly by the crèches as a result of funding applications that SAEP assisted the crèches to prepare, such as R102,000 from the Lotteries Board and R9,000 from Community Chest that went to Qhamani Educare. In addition to cash contributions, SAEP distributed many donations in kind (food, toys, clothes, furniture, equipment etc) for the crèches.

SAEP plays a key role as a link between individuals, organizations, and public bodies with resources to contribute and the crèches who so urgently need them. SAEP works to ensure that donations are allocated to the neediest and that they do in fact reach the intended beneficiaries (a valid concern of every donor). SAEP acknowledges with gratitude all those who have made donations over the past year, a list of whom is included as an appendix to this report.

Newsletters and Media

In order to keep funders, volunteers, and other supporters up to date on developments, we send a monthly email newsletter describing our crèche projects to 136 people, and the list is always growing. The crèche newsletter is also available in hard copy on request.

The media highlight of the year was appearing on national TV news. Jane Keen and Nokhaya Manxiwa-Nqeza of Qhamani Educare were interviewed about the ongoing plight of the crèches and what could be done to address the problem. SAEP and the Safety Unity Crèche Forum also featured in a number of newspaper articles: The Cape Argus did a good story in July on the first donation of e-Pap from the Red Hat Renegades, then a follow-up article when volunteers from the Red Hats and Alexander Forbes were shot at during a visit to Qhama Educare. The Cape Times ran a story on another incident when Jane Keen and three Norwegian volunteers were robbed at gunpoint outside of Nonzame Educare.

Three of the crèche principals were nominated for awards over the past year: Nokhaya Manxiwa-Nqeza and Nobuntu Mkencele for the Cape Times “Woman of Worth” award, and Nolithemba Bolisi as a “Woman of Worth” by Unilever (which included a R10,000 donation to Noncedo). In addition, the Safety Unity Crèche Forum was nominated for the Cape Argus “City of Angels” promotion. This recognition provided much needed publicity as well as inspiration to the principals who work so hard with so few other rewards.

Tracey Young’s book How2Help deserves a special mention for including one of the crèches – Noncedo -- as an organization worthy of public support. How2Help is an excellent directory providing information to donors and volunteers on how they can make a difference, and many people have become involved through it.

Volunteers

Our work with the crèches depends to a very large degree on time, ideas, and energy contributed by volunteers from the Cape Town area and abroad. Every one involved over the past year has done so on a voluntary basis. Volunteers have provided help with legal matters, architectural plans, gardening, teaching of children, delivering of goods donated, auditing of books, sewing gowns, aprons and mattress covers, playing with the children, painting, research, assistance with filling in of forms and fund raising applications, photography, computer skills and much more. Special thanks are due to Ros Emanuel of Cape Town, who has contributed generously of her time in a wide range of activities.

Advocacy and Networking

SAEP and the Safety Unity Crèche Forum have worked closely with other organisations in the field in order to strengthen the lobbying effort needed to improve government policies and delivery in the field of early childhood development. Meetings were held with Ithemba Labantwana, Children’s Institute, Yabonga, the Centre for Early Childhood Development, the Department of Social Services, and others. We have also made input to the City Council on its proposed Early Childhood Development policy, and supported Nokhaya Manxiwa-Nqeza in a presentation to Parliament on the Children’s Bill.

Registration of Crèches and State Subsidies

The regulatory requirements for all non-governmental organisations, and particularly for crèches, are onerous and complex. It is enormously difficult for any pre-school to survive in a poor and marginalized area without state subsidies for their services. However, in order to qualify for subsidy from the Department of Social Services, a centre must first be registered as Places of Care, a long battle involving time, patience and resources. SAEP has been assisting with this (as well as sorting out the confusion caused by the Department of Health stopping their food subsidy earlier this year). We are pleased to report that the following crèches were registered over the past year: Kamva, Qhamani, Qhama, and Ruth First. All but Ruth First are now receiving the state subsidy.

A number of crèches have recently been granted NPO (Non-Profit Organization) status, and Qhamani has been registered as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO). Some of the crèches still need to be registered with the Department of Education in order to receive support for their Grade R classes. There is still a long way to go, but we are encouraged to see the progress, and the impact this is having at the crèches, especially in the ability to pay staff wages that are more appropriate.

Training and Support for Principals and Staff

SAEP has assisted the crèches by making the principals and staff aware of training opportunities and resources. A number of staff have attended external training with organisations such as Grassroots Connections and Waldorf. We have also arranged for a short three-day training course on dealing with HIV/ AIDS, run by the Centre for Early Childhood Development, and an arts/crafts work-shop run by Helen Binckes of the SAEP Management Committee.

Apart from these formal training courses, a large part of SAEP’s role is in mentoring and coaching the crèche principals one-on-one to assist them in dealing with the government bureaucracy and to raise funds effectively. Jane Keen has met with the group weekly over the past year and assisted with a wide range of problems and challenges. In between the group meetings, she works with individual principals who need support on various tasks.

Financial management and accounting

Much work has gone into assisting the crèches to draw up realistic budgets, record their finances accurately, and get the books audited at the end of the financial year. Special thanks and credit go to Joshua van der Rede who transformed boxes of slips and records, into beautifully presented annual reports, which can now be given to funders and state departments.

II. ACADEMIC SUPPORT AND ENRICHMENT IN

TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOLS

SAEP continued to build on its four years of experience in providing after-school and weekend opportunities for learners in over-crowded and under-resourced township high schools. SAEP now concentrates on a cluster of three schools in Philippi and surrounding communities in the Cape Flats. Most of the families in these areas, which are only slowly being converted from shack dwellings to formal housing, are economic refugees from the impoverished rural areas of the Eastern Cape that constituted the former “Bantustan” homelands known as Ciskei and Transkei.

A large number of these learners are eager to take advantage of educational and economic opportunities in Cape Town, but school construction and academic development in the schools has not been able to keep pace with the rate of immigration. Classes are overcrowded; teachers are overworked; very few extra-curricular activities are available; and the school resources (computers, lab equipment, athletic facilities, and art or music facilities) are far inferior to those in the school in downtown Cape Town where they exist at all.

SAEP fills major gaps in both the academic and extra-curricular programmes of the schools by providing human resources (interns and volunteers) to organize, mentor, and train the learners in a wide variety of areas.

Debating and public speaking:

2004 was another successful year for the Township Debating League (TDL), a highly successful programme that SAEP founded in 2003 in partnership with the University of Cape Town Debating Union. During the year, the TDL provided training and competitive tournaments for more than twenty high schools in the Cape Flats, creating opportunities for hundreds of high school learners to develop critical thinking and public speaking skills. Debaters from the TDL again dominated the Western Cape provincial debating competitions and took top honours in the national competition. SAEP’s participation in the TDL was led by intern Sandiso Phaliso.

Mathematics and Science:

This was the area of greatest growth in SAEP’s high school programme during the year. Development was led by gap year intern Nezile Ntutha and volunteer Meena Bhatia (George Washington University) and focussed on Zisukhanyo and Sinethemba High Schools. Maths, Science, and Technology (MST) Clubs were launched at both schools in major school-wide events. Intensive tutorial assistance was provided to Grade 12 mathematics learners at Zisukhanyo and to smaller groups of Grade 10 and 12 learners at Sinethemba. A small group of learners received tutoring in accounting at Oscar Mpetha, staffed by employees of Cadiz Holdings, one of South Africa’s leading asset management companies. SAEP also provided support for two Oscar Mpetha physics students who were participating in a science competition sponsored by UCT.

This area of academic support will be a major theme of SAEP’s work in 2005 through the development of MST Clubs at all three schools under a grant of R102,000 from The Shuttleworth Foundation.

Poetry and Creative Writing:

Poetry continued to be one of the most popular of SAEP’s after-school activities. Interns Asanda Gonya and Khangelani Mtyhalela conducted poetry workshops at our three high schools, as did volunteers Sarah Ruden (PhD in Classical Philology, Harvard University) and Karen Jennings, a third year classics student at UCT.

Many learners participated in the SAEP-Indaba Zasekhaya poetry competition, and a number of them were winners in the high school category. The winners read their poems and received book prizes at a special ceremony hosted by the Centre for African Studies at UCT and co-sponsored by The Centre for the Book. A group of them were subsequently invited to perform at a Women’s Day celebration at Iziko Museum of Natural History. The work of the winners was published in a special supplement to Indaba Zasekhaya community newspaper and will be published in magazine form in a special issue of the prestigious poetry journal Carapace in early 2005.

Journalism:

SAEP interns Nosisa Mhlathi and Sandiso Phaliso conducted workshops in journalism and were joined during the course of the year by Steve Kenyon, editor of the UCT student newspaper Varsity. Learners were able to publish their writing in both Thatha Mntwana and Indaba Zasekhaya. The foundation was laid for a much more ambitious after school programme that will be run by UCT journalism students at Zisukhanyo next year under the name of The Media School.

Film and Video:

SAEP’s gap year interns conducted screenings of short African films that dealt with issues such as xenophobia, HIV/AIDS, and crime at all three high schools on Friday afternoons. The films were supplied by the Community Video Education Trust (CVET), which unfortunately closed its doors before the end of the year.

Computer literacy and information technology:

SAEP’s ability to provide training in computers and IT at its three high schools was severely limited in 2004 by lack of access to computers in the schools, a problem that grew worse as the year progressed. Only a small number of learners were able to receive training at SAEP’s computer laboratory at 10 Surbiton Road. A major thrust of the high school programme in 2005 will be improving access to computers at the schools and providing basic computer literacy and skills in using educational software programmes.

Academic support for the talented

In mid-2004, the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) and Western Province Rugby asked SAEP to provide academic support to a talented rugby player from Oscar Mpetha High School who had failed Grade 11 in 2003 and was failing again at mid-year. SAEP accepted this challenge, and asked him to form a study group to join him for after-school and weekend tutorials. They named themselves “The Ruggers.” At year-end, the learner had achieved significant improvement, passed the year, and graduated to Grade 12, along with the other “Ruggers.”

Environment and outdoor education

SAEP continued its mission of environmental education through monthly outdoor excursions in partnership with the Mountain Club of SA (MSCA) as well as environmental education about recycling at the three schools. This component should expand in 2005 as part of the MST programme funded by The Shuttleworth Foundation.

Art

SAEP has facilitated a very exciting training and art enrichment programme for teachers and students at Sinethemba through partnership with the Frank Joubert Art and Design Centre, Western Cape Education Department. This programme is now in its third year.

Academic and career counselling

SAEP continued to provide academic and career counselling on an informal basis to participants in its after-school programme. The closure of the Careers Resource and Information Centre in Athlone, which had been a major resource for learners in SAEP’s programmes, was a major blow to this component of the programme begun in 2003. However, counselling will be a major component of SAEP’s programme for the Shuttleworth Foundation in 2005.

III. “GAP YEAR” INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

SAEP again had a “bumper crop” of promising high school graduates in its gap year programme. This year’s five interns were Nosisa Mhlathi (Sinethemba Senior Secondary School), Asanda Gonya (Oscar Mpetha High School), Khangelani Mtyhalela (Sinethemba S.S.S.), Nezile Ntutha (Woodlands High School), and Sandiso Phaliso (Sinethemba S.S.S.). Here’s how they spent their year:

Skills development

Computers and Information Technology. Development of key skills began with providing access to a computers and training in basic computer skills, including use of applications such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the Internet and World Wide Web.

English Language. Development of English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) was a core component of the programme. Activities included discussion groups (including “Touchstones,” an approach developed at St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland), writing exercises (including creative writing and poetry), encouragement of reading, and special assistance for two interns who re-sat their English matric exams in November.

Mathematics and Science. Two interns re-sat their matric papers in mathematics and spent considerable time revising their maths and preparing for the exams over the course of the year. Nicolene Fourie, a fourth year UCT Commerce student, spent many mornings with them providing professional tutorial assistance.

Photography and film. This year’s interns were especially interested in photography and film, so heavy emphasis was placed on development of skills using cameras and film. Alexia Smit, a third-year UCT film and media student, met with the group regularly to introduce them to scriptwriting and film techniques. Four of the interns had an unusual opportunity to shoot film on a six-day marine research cruise from Cape Town to Richards Bay sponsored by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. All five of the 2004 interns are considering careers in film or media (journalism or television).

Journalism

The interns had the opportunity to contribute a number of stories to four issues of the community newspaper Indaba Zasekhaya (“Home News”) (circulation 35,000) published by the Integrated Serviced Land Project (iSLP). Special thanks for this opportunity go to Janet Mackay of Caleb Consulting, a member of the SAEP Management Committee, for her support and encouragement. The interns also designed and published an SAEP newsletter, Thatha Mntwana, which featured writing by them and high school learners to whom they and volunteers from UCT were imparting journalism skills in after-school programmes.

Poetry and the Arts

Two interns, Asanda Gonya and Khangelani Mtyhalela, were very active during the year in teaching, writing, and performing poetry. They were co-winners in the Young Poets category of a community-wide poetry competition sponsored by Indaba Zasekhaya. They performed their poetry not only at SAEP functions, but also at events at The Centre for the Book and Pollsmoor Prison. They and Nezile Ntutha also worked on film scripts, advertising proposals, and other creative writing projects.

In early 2004, the interns attended a number of courses at the UCT summer school covering a wide range of topics, including the African novel, Romantic Poetry, the roots of language, and opera. This provided both intellectual stimulation and an introduction to how subjects are taught at the tertiary level.

Outdoor activities and environmental education

The gap year interns participated in strenuous monthly climbs on Table Mountain as part of SAEP’s ongoing partnership with the Mountain Club of South Africa, and four of them received special environmental exposure as part of their six-day voyage on the F.R.S. Algoa as part of the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Project.

Community Service and Leadership Development

The gap year interns had numerous opportunities to render service to their community and develop leadership and mentoring skills in the activities described above under “Academic Support and Enrichment in Township High Schools.” Sandiso Phaliso also assisted in the planting of gardens at the pre-schools of the Safety Unity Crèche Forum and in promoting “3R” Clubs (Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse) in the schools.

Academic and Career Counselling

Avril Dawson, a retired guidance counsellor and English teacher, and SAEP staff provided academic and career counselling, including visits to tertiary institutions, assistance in applying for tertiary admission and bursaries, and guidance and support in evaluating technical training programmes provided by various Sectoral Education and Training Agencies (SETAs).

Educational/Career Outcomes

2003 Interns. Xolani May completed his first year studying classical music at the University of Cape Town and received the highest grade his voice teacher had ever given in her many years of teaching. Bulelani Futshane and Ayanda Mpu completed learnerships in web design at Concept Interactive sponsored by the MAPPP (Media, Advertising, Publishing, Printing, and Packaging) SETA. Futshane went on to take a position in youth development (with a focus on debating) at LoveLife, where he was promoted to implement provincial programmes from a new base in Worcester. Luzuko Hina and Thandisizwe Zondi completed a one-year computer technical support course in A+ and N+ at CS Holdings under the auspices of the ISETT (Information Systems, Electronics, and Telecommunications Technologies) SETA. Both Zondi and Hina rejoined SAEP in September to complete their work placements, which had begun at the City of Cape Town. Zondi continues to work for SAEP as co-ordinator of its maths and science education project and hopes to receive further training in 2005 in computer security for financial institutions as part of a Bank SETA programme.

2004 Interns. Nosisa Mhlathi was awarded a paying learnership at EASD (Empowerment for African Sustainable Development) in Cape Town for the last six months of 2004. In 2005, she will be returning to complete her third year of study of communications (journalism) at the University of the Western Cape. The other four interns are awaiting the results of their applications for tertiary education.

IV. FOREIGN INTERNS AND LOCAL VOLUNTEERS

SAEP’s efforts continued to receive critical support from interns from abroad, and for the first time we began to attract support from volunteers from the Cape Town area.

Will Hunter, a former Rhodes Scholar whom we had met at the Rhodes Reunion in Cape Town in 2003, joined us as a volunteer for a month, providing significant support for our gap year interns and helping them to launch the SAEP bulletin, Thatha Mntwana.

During the winter (the North American summer), outstanding students from abroad joined us as interns and volunteers. For the fourth year, an intern from Duke University’s Hart Leadership programme made special contributions to the SAEP programme: Tomas Lopez mentored our gap year interns and did a major research paper analyzing the five years SAEP has been working at Sinethemba High School. Meena Bhatia from George Washington University not only contributed substantial time and energy to tutoring maths while a student at UCT during the first term, but also stayed in Cape Town for an additional three months to head up SAEP’s mathematics tutorial programme, with a focus on Grade 12 learners at Zisukhanyo High, where she prepared and directed the launch of their Math, Science, and Technology Club. Erica Stuhlreyer of Denver University conducted research on gender issues in the gap year programme and in the high schools and produced a very useful research paper that will help us address these issues in the future. Liza Semler of Wheaton College received a Davis Fellowship to work with the gap year interns on film and documentary journalism.

Tatiana de Carvalho (Brazil and the University of Stellenbosch) made significant contributions not only to our environmental education programme for our gap year and high school learners, but also in planting gardens at several of the crèches.

During the course of the year, a number of students from the University of Cape Town, both South African and foreign, contributed their time, including Nicolene Fourie (mathematics); Alison Zelton (University of Wisconsin: Madison), Asha Agrawal (Northwestern University) and Chafungwa Manswa (Zambia)(mathematics and physics); Dean Peters (physics), Steve Kenyon and Gill Einhorn (journalism), and Alexia Smit (film and media). The most active volunteer from UCT was Karen Jennings, a third year Classics student, who not only conducted poetry workshops but also tutored English and biology and ran Touchstones discussion groups as well.

Local support for SAEP’s activities also came from Cape Technikon, through the efforts of students Anele Nelani and Mawaka Mayana. In November, a volunteer from the University of the Western Cape, Bukiwe Lupindo, joined us to provide academic and career counselling; a colleague of hers, Haaniem Moosa, will join forces with her to teach English in 2005.

In the late spring we were joined by Rebecca Coté, a graduate of the University of North Carolina: Charlotte (fundraising and public relations) and Christina Beck (Humboldt University, Berlin)(administrative and other assistance). Two other German students, Marita Wenzel and Eike Soch, also joined us with primary responsibility for the crèche project.

From the broader Cape Town community, special kudos goes to Sarah Ruden, a Harvard PhD and distinguished poet and translator, for her inspiring work with a poetry group at Oscar Mpetha High School and for other support for our efforts, as well as to Avril Dawson, who for the second year provided career counselling to post-matric learners. Francois Findlay and Sibusiso Mabuza of Cadiz Asset Management have begun a tutorial programme for learners in accounting at Oscar Mpehta that will continue and grow next year. iThemba Labs, another local company, has begun providing tutorial support in maths at Zisukhanyo. Finally, local volunteer June Humphry began devoting substantial time to volunteer teaching in English.

Thanks are due again this year to Lindsay Hooper, Urs Heinz Huber, Carola Meyer, and other members of the Outreach Committee of the Mountain Club of South Africa (MSCA) for their continued dedication in providing outdoor experiences to our interns and high school learners. We also had invaluable support from Dr. Helen Moffett and Dr. Harry Garuba of the Centre for African Studies at UCT and revered local poet and publisher Gus Ferguson in judging the SAEP-Indaba Zasekhaya Poetry Competition.

Finally, in addition to serving on the Management Committee, several members made special contributions in program areas, including Belemane Semoli (environmental education), Janet Mackay (journalism), and Helen Binckes (art).

V. SUPPORT FOR FREE ELIM CHURCH YOUTH GROUP

The programmes SAEP had supported in art, dance, and scouting were unfortunately discontinued at the beginning of 2004 when Xolani May, who had supervised those programmes, became a full-time student at UCT and there was no one at the Church to assume his responsibilities.

VI. IMPACT OF CRIME ON SAEP PROGRAMMES

Violent crime remains a major problem in the townships where SAEP works, both for the learners in the schools and for SAEP personnel and volunteers. Jane Keen and Norton Tennille and volunteers riding with them were held up at gunpoint on two separate occasions, and volunteers from other organizations supporting our crèche project were shot at while delivering donations. Fortunately, no one was badly injured, but it was a very scary experience for those involved. Three of our gap year interns were also robbed at gunpoint in separate incidents during the year in their communities. The criminals were all young men.

Weaknesses in the educational system and high rates of unemployment and poverty are significant contributing factors to the high rate of crime in the townships, which makes all the more urgent the type of work SAEP is doing to improve educational opportunities and develop leadership, scholarship, and an ethic of community service in Cape Town’s poorest communities. While SAEP does everything it can to minimize the risks of travelling and working in the townships, crime limits what we can do, especially evenings and weekends and in the most notoriously dangerous areas, and deters some potential volunteers from participating on site. In any event, crime in the townships is only a part of a much greater social problem that affects the downtown and residential suburbs as well, and we believe that better education and more jobs will do more than anything else to reduce crime.

VII. INSTITUTIONAL STATUS

The organization finally received its registration as a Non-Profit Organisation in October 2003 (number 028-310 NPO). This should greatly facilitate our fund- raising in South Africa. We have also applied for status as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO), which will provide tax benefits to local donors. The organisation has also registered with South African Revenue Service as required.

VIII. GOVERNANCE

SAEP is a broad-based community organization and continues to receive extraordinary support and leadership from its Management Committee, which includes members from the township communities as well as the greater Cape Town community. The Committee met every two months, and an Executive Committee elected by the Committee met on alternative months.

Belemani Semoli, a former SAEP Fellow currently employed in the Marine and Coastal Management Division of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, chaired the Committee. The other members were Jane Keen (Vice Chair), Norton Tennille (Treasurer), Helen Binckes (Secretary), Nthabiseng Motsoko and Nombulelo Tole (teachers at Sinethemba Senior Secondary School), Bruce Totoyi (teacher at Oscar Mpetha High School), Belinda Cornelissen (teacher at Zisukhanyo Senior Secondary School), Deborah Mhlathi (Philippi community), Nomsa Manxiwa-Nqeza and Sindiswa Tebeka (Safety Unity Crèche Forum), Janet Mackay (Caleb Consulting and Integrated Serviced Land Project), and Thandisizwe Zondi, Luzuko Hina and Xolani May (all former SAEP interns).

A new committee was elected at the Annual General Meeting in November 2004. The following were elected to serve for 2005: Belemani Semoli (Chair), Janet Mackay (Vice Chair), Helen Binckes (Secretary), Norton Tennille (Treasurer), Xolani May, Luzuko Hina and Nosisa Mhlathi (former interns), Janis Kennedy (fund raiser), Bruce Totoyi (Oscar Mpetha teacher), Belinda Cornelissen (Zisukhanyo teacher), Nthabiseng Motsoko (Sinethemba teacher, with Nombulelo Tole as her alternate), and Nomsa Manxiwa-Nqeza and Sindiswa Tebeka (Safety Unity Crèche Forum).

Jane Keen has been elected Director of the organization and thus stepped down from the Management Committee. She will continue to manage the Crèche Project while assuming overall responsibility for the organization. Norton Tennille will continue to serve as Programme Manager: Post-Matric and High School.

SAEP thanks the members of last year’s Committee for all the time, energy, and inspiration they brought to our programmes, and welcomes the new Committee for 2005.

IX. FINANCES AND FUND-RAISING

Fundraising

SAEP received almost R75,000 in donations during FY 2004, which included R38,600 earmarked for and transferred directly to the members of the Safety Unity Crèche Forum. Fundraising for the Crèche and the High School and Post-matric Programmes also accelerated during the year. We were very fortunate to be joined earlier this year by Janis Kennedy, a fund raising volunteer doing a Masters at UCT. Janis has made a major contribution in mapping out a creative strategy for fundraising and institutional development, drafting fund raising materials, organizing two highly successful fundraising events to celebrate the American Thanksgiving, and raising considerable funds from other donors. An additional R12,000 was raised by providing programme services, such as supervising interns from other programmes such as the School for International Training (SIT) and hosting groups of visitors from abroad such as Grinnell College, American University, and the University of Florida Law School.

The most encouraging development looking to 2005 was the decision by The Shuttleworth Foundation in September to invest R102,000 in SAEP’s high school programme for the development of Maths, Science, and Technology education. We hope to raise an additional R100,000 for our high school programmes to strengthen our MST efforts and support our programmes in humanities and the arts (especially English, history, art, and music). We also need to raise R75,000 to cover the costs of our gap year programme for 2005.

Financial Report

The organization’s audited financial statements for the year, reflecting income and expenditure of over R88,000, were prepared by BDO Spencer Steward. Net income over expenditure for the year was R136. The results for the year are summarized in Appendix B. A copy of the Audited Financial Statements is kept at the organization’s offices at 10 Surbiton Road, Rosebank 7700. These reported figures do not include income and expenditure of SAEP (USA), which will be audited and reported separately, since it is a distinct corporate entity from its South African sister organization and subject to different reporting requirements. There were no transfers between the US and South African entities.

X. THE WAY FORWARD

In 2005, SAEP plans to continue to consolidate and expand its three core programmes. This will require a significant increase in funding. A major new expense will be office space. To date, SAEP has operated out of the home of Jane Keen and Norton Tennille in Rosebank. This is no longer possible given the growth of SAEP’s activities. Space in a rental property in the same block, which we are considering, would involve added costs of approximately R4500 per month, as well a purchase of office furniture and new computer equipment. The estimated occupancy costs for the year are R54,000 and furniture and equipment costs R26,000.

In addition to this R80,000, our fundraising target is a minimum of R100,000 for the high school programmes to match the grant received from The Shuttleworth Foundation and R75,000 for our post-matric programme. We plan to expand the latter by providing additional support to former interns and recent matriculants who go directly from high school to tertiary education. A minimum of R80,000 will be required for the out-of-pocket costs of the Crèche project. The grand total is R335,000. We will intensify our fundraising, and our search for volunteers and interns, both locally and abroad. The board of directors of SAEP (USA) will be reconstituted in early 2005 with new leadership from both the US and South African sides.

The development of partnerships with local institutions like the Shuttleworth Foundation, Cadiz Asset Management, and student organizations at the University of Cape Town and other local tertiary institutions will be a major priority. We also hope to develop other long-term relationships with educational institutions in the United States of the type we have built with Duke University over the last five years. We are also hopeful that the Mandela Rhodes Foundation will be in a position to explore partnerships and endorsements, which will be one of its major areas of activity.

A number of exciting projects are in the works for early 2005. One is a collaboration with St. Bernard’s Covent School, Slough, England (a “twinning” school with Sinethemba) for a two week visit in February by a group of their teacher and learners which will include a Model United Nations General Assembly. Another is a visit from a group of 12 Rhodes Scholars in residence to spend a week working in our high school programmes.