SOS Africa is a grassroots South African charity which funds the education and care of disadvantaged African township children to help them break out of poverty. Our non-profit organisation breaks down barriers to learning and lowers South Africa’s school dropout rates by providing holistic sponsorship to children without access to education and vital support to struggling South African schools.
SOS Africa Charity: How it all began…
SOS Africa was founded in January 2003 by 18-year-old UK student Matt Crowcombe, and South African school teacher Henry Matthews. Matt and Henry were dismayed by the poor standard of free schooling available to township children in South Africa. One night, over a bowl of jelly and ice-cream, they developed a plan to establish holistic education programmes to empower South Africa’s future generations through education.
It all began by sponsoring the education and holistic support of a young boy from Mahikeng who had great potential but no access to good schooling. 20 years on, thanks to the support of sponsors from across the world, SOS Africa has established 4 fully operational education centres in partnership with local schools, empowering hundreds of children throughout different regions of the country. Matt and his family now live in the Western Cape overseeing the charity’s thriving education projects.
In celebration of this significant landmark, SOS Africa recently opened its 5th Education Centre in Gordon’s Bay in the Western Cape. The video above is a tour of this exciting new facility hosted by SOS Africa sponsored high school students Hazel and Karabo.
Empowering Children through Education
The primary role of SOS Africa is to provide holistic education sponsorship to disadvantaged children who are unable to access good schooling. After the completion of a thorough selection process in collaboration with community-based institutions, the charity provides sponsored children from Grades 1 to 12 with school tuition at a partnering school, safe transport, school uniform and stationery; essentially everything they need to fit in and flourish.
In the afternoons they attend Aftercare at SOS Africa Education Centres based on school campuses where they receive a nutritious lunch, homework support, mentoring, tutoring, counselling and participate in a broad range of extra-curricular activities and sports. Our sponsored children even participate in regular outings and careers days to broaden their horizons.
SOS Africa’s Child Sponsorship Programme has been so successful that our first graduates are either at university achieving top grades, undertaking further training or in employment. Meanwhile, their sponsors have been able to follow their progress every step of the way by receiving updates, school reports, photos, correspondence and visit later on in the sponsorship.
Holistic Education Centres
SOS Africa’s holistic education programmes are facilitated by experienced staff based at education centres within the grounds of our partnering schools. Every few years, SOS Africa identifies a struggling government school with potential and builds a fully resourced education centre tailored to the requirements of the partnering school.
SOS Africa Education Centres fulfil 2 main functions:
- Each morning, whilst our sponsored children are at school, SOS Africa Education Centres open on campus to provide learning support programmes to students with learning difficulties. This support is essential to ensure that children do not fall behind or drop out of school altogether.
- After school, SOS Africa Education Centres are attended by our sponsored children where they receive a nutritious lunch, homework support, mentoring, tutoring, counselling and participate in a broad range of extra-curricular activities from gardening and art to swimming and kung fu.
This comprehensive and holistic approach enables each SOS Africa Education Centre to support both the most economically challenged children and students who are likely to drop out of the education system due to undiagnosed learning difficulties.
Additional Education Projects
With the help of individual, school, community group and corporate charity sponsors from around the world, SOS Africa is also able to support struggling schools by funding vital building projects (classrooms, sanitation blocks, sports facilities etc), learning resources plus young adult and staff training programmes.
These charity projects have been successful because they make an immediate impact upon the quality of education provided by partnering schools. Meanwhile, regular feedback and updates can be provided to our education project sponsors.
Looking to the Future…
This year SOS Africa celebrates its 21st anniversary and whilst the scope of our support has grown and evolved significantly during this time, our core objectives remain the same… To provide SOS Africa sponsored children with everything they need to thrive both in and out of the classroom and to raise the standard of education at our partnering schools to lower the national dropout rate.
And we are delighted to share that the quality of education provided by our partnering schools continues to improve and more and more young adults graduate from our sponsorship scheme each year. “Empowerment through education” not only enables them to pursue careers of their choosing but ultimately raises the standard of living of their entire families.
Our dream is to continue building holistic education centres and expanding the scope of our child sponsorship schemes to ensure equality of opportunity for children across South Africa.
