Every Saturday morning, approximately 1000 local teachers
descend on Penryn
School for the Penreach
Project. The word ‘local’ is relative here, because in fact teachers will come
from as far away as 200 miles for this, often driving through the night to get
there.
This ground-breaking and award-winning project involves a
Penryn School team taking responsibility for training the generally unqualified
teachers who work in schools in deprived South African townships. In fact, the
number of teachers touched by this project is nearer 2000, with different
teachers attending in different weeks, and the number of children who
indirectly benefit as a result is incalculable. All part of the long slow
post-Apartheid drive towards genuine equality.
The night before we were treated to a superbly professional
dance show, performed by the OWLAG dancers. OWLAG is an acronym for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls,
founded by Oprah after a visit to South Africa around ten years ago,
with the specific mission of educating talented but disadvantaged girls from
the local township. Boy, were they talented!
With OWLAG being officially inducted into the Round Square
the same evening, rumours abounded that Oprah herself would be appearing as our
guest speaker, therefore, it was initially something of an anticlimax to find
that our speaker was a humble park ranger and photographer called Kim Wolhuter.
We need not have been disappointed! Kim, it turns out, is a quite remarkable
man who has studied animal behaviour to such a degree that he can now romp with
wild leopards and hyenas. He never carries a firearm: “If I’m stupid enough to
push the boundaries too far in the quest for a better photograph, an animal
does not deserve to die as a result.”
It turned out the Oprah rumour was not entirely false
though! The next morning, 1000 local teachers in the Penreach Project received
a live motivational talk from the lady herself via Skype. If nothing else, it
will be life-changing for these people to realise that someone so famous thinks
they are important.
For more information, check out http://www.penreach.org.za
Tom Vignoles
Felsted School
Deputy Head (Co-Curricular)
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