Sakhumzi Car Rental Foundation (SCARF) will seek to provide students in townships and rural areas around South Africa with opportunities to take part in and participate in sport and other extramural activities. SCARF’s aim is to assist and or make suggestions to schools regarding the design and implementation of school sport programs with academic and social discipline that will develop young people into well rounded members of the community.

The White Paper on Sport compiled by the Commission of The European Communities in 2007, argues that “the lack of physical activity reinforces the occurrence of overweight, obesity and a number of chronic conditions such as cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes, which reduce the quality of life, put individuals lives at risk and are a burden on health budgets and the economy”.

Furthermore, a recent survey in England has shown that schools that are successful at sport are likely to be successful academically. The survey further discovered that schools with high participation in sports tended to have lower truancy rates and less bad behaviour.

Therefore, SCARF will work with various stakeholders to assist students from the townships and rural areas of South Africa to do well at school and achieve better results in their studies, whilst staying healthy. SCARF intends to achieve this by introducing or facilitating the introduction of well managed sporting and mentorship programs and other extramural activities into the schools.

All the project areas will work towards developing the skills youth need to be productive and positive adults in our society. Decision making, teamwork, problem solving, being responsible and having high self-esteem are just a few of the many skills SCARF will seek to develop in young people.

OBJECTIVES

To encourage participation in education and outdoor activities
To support youth in developing valuable conservation and natural resources related knowledge, skills and stewardship
To enhance development of self-concept, character and personal growth through safe, educational and socially acceptable involvement in sports.
To encourage and assist students to build their own skill set, expose them to active business environment, equipping and enabling them to become entrepreneurs themselves
To promote the highest standards of safety, sportsmanship and ethical behaviour
To strengthen families through participation in lifelong recreational activities
To provide hands-on learning experiences
Aid the government with its objective to eradicate poverty and unemployment by directly creating employment through Sakhumzi Car Rental (Sakhumzi Tourism Group) as a business/ organisation, targeting previously disadvantaged young people throughout South Africa

MISSION STATEMENT

To enhance the lives of young and underprivileged township and rural kids throughout South Africa through education and sports and other extramural activities that are rooted in fun, education, health, discipline and ethical principles.

Sakhumzi Car Rental Foundation Priorities

A) SPORTS

Historically, school sport programs were successfully developed and well run in townships and rural areas around South Africa. Students participated in various sporting codes to keep fit, healthy, and focused on their studies. They also learned discipline as they interacted with their teachers and fellow students as well as students from other schools. There used to be a strong presence of volunteer network (family, teachers and friends) and students willingly and readily participated in the various sporting codes with enthusiasm and pride.

Today, well structured school sport programs are virtually non-existent in these communities and this leads to students engaging in less desirable activities, i.e. premature sex, loitering, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, gangsterism, etc, post school hours because they have too much unsupervised ‘free time’ on their hands. SCARF intends to address the situation with the help and participation of teachers, parents, government and corporate South Africa. SCARF intends to afford the students the opportunity to enjoy school and everything else about school and education.

SCARF believes that one of the reasons for the successful results produced by the matric students in the affluent schools is their participation in sport. These schools have well developed and run sporting codes in which all students in the school participate. There is a very strong competitive spirit seen in the students as they participate in sport, which spirit they carry into their academics. Sport could just be that one solution that can help students in townships and rural areas to do well in school and grow into responsible adults.

B) EDUCATION

Pre-school attendance and the quality of education there, has a significant effect on later school performance and can be a powerful tool for overcoming educational disadvantages of the poor and less privileged.

The fact of the matter is that black children that study in township schools, chances are went to a crèche in the township and these crèches are generally inadequate one way or the other. Therefore, in order for SCARF to be effective in ensuring successful development in primary school children, the organisation would also have to make sure that the crèches in these underprivileged communities have properly skilled staff and, relevant and adequate learning material. According to Pollitt (1984), explicit-literacy nurturing activities are not part of the early childhood experience of most poor children in developing countries.

According to Floraline I. Stevens,one major educational policy issue facing new and developing nations involves early childhood education (ECE). As these nations move to establish stable social and economic environments, their policy makers must consider the impact of ECE on national progress. In effect they must determine the educational as well as societal and economic benefits for the nation when very young children are afforded meaningful learning experiences.

Education is more important than wealth in starting a business, and has helped people from poor or modest back-rounds to establish some of South Africa’s most successful companies.

C) ENTREPRENEURSHIP

South Africa is struggling with the legacy of white minority rule. South Africa’s inability to create jobs is one of the biggest disappointments of the post apartheid era, despite tough policies adopted by the government which revitalised the stagnating economy and eventually led to growth of 2.5% a year. At the same time university education, which on average costs R13 000, 00 a year is out of reach for most black South Africans.

In a dramatic bid to tackle this country’s persistent unemployment rate of at least 35%, entrepreneurship has become a key part of the evolving post-apartheid curriculum. Students can’t count on getting good jobs when they graduate, so they must be taught to create their own work and help forge a kind of Apprentice Nation.

This high unemployment rate in South Africa is forcing a push towards a sort of entrepreneurial energy from within and, SCARF has a responsibility through various programs to be set up to ensure that this entrepreneurial flame already ignited stays lit. SCARF commits to ensuring and encouraging that students are taught to build their own skill set, and to become entrepreneurs themselves. More importantly students must have exposure and access to the world of entrepreneurship by spending some time with entrepreneurs from various sectors of the economy in the actual work environment to understand precisely what it means in practise to be an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial forces are moderate in South Africa. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) ranked the country in the middle among the monitored groups. Equipping school children with Entrepreneurial skills emerged as the key means of combating South Africa’s unemployment problems.

D) SUPERVISION AND YOUTH MENTORSHIP

While supervision is recognised as a crucial aspect of organised education, it has received less attention than it deserves.

SCARF believes that children and young people should be encouraged and supported to:

Be healthy
Stay safe
Enjoy and achieve
Make a positive contribution to society
Achieve economic well being

To this effect SCARF is committed to using resources available to the organisation to providing children (starting with early learning schools) from previously disadvantaged back-rounds throughout South Africa with the support they need to achieve good outcomes.

SCARF would among others look into the possibility of setting up “reading rooms” where kids could come in after school to do homework or just read books under supervision by graduates who are not employed and would like to give of their time to do community work. The idea behind the reading rooms is that, parents of black kids tend to leave their residences much early to get to work on time and, return home very late and at times too tired to check if their kids have done their homework. The children, if they are not partaking in sports, should be in a safe environment that is supervised and preferably as close as possible to their homes allowing them to attend to their school matters with possible help at hand.

A mentor is one who helps shape the attitude or outlook of an individual and SCARF intends to focus on youth mentoring programs to assist at-risk children who lack role models and sponsors. The nurturing model would take more of a “parent” figure, creating a safe, open environment in which mentee (child) can both learn and try things for him-or-herself.

CLOSING

The Sakhumzi Car Rental Foundation’s vision encompasses a positive and equal society, in which children and young people are encouraged to aim high but also to learn from mistakes as they grow older. The children that are disadvantaged, through no fault of their own, need to know that they “are” and “can” because they are not alone-this will certainly assist to instill in them character, a personal drive and determination to succeed.

Corporate Social Investments

Executive Summary

OBJECTIVES

MISSION STATEMENT

Sakhumzi Car Rental Foundation Priorities