By Martha T. Cummings | Executive Director
We are happy to share with you our second project report for the Samkelwe Secondary School Wellness Studio. This studio is to be part of the new afterschool curriculum, which we have entitled THEMBA: Xhosa for hope. THEMBA stands for The Holistic Education of Mind, Body, and Attitude, and the studio will house activities that support that vision, including self-defense, yoga & meditation. In addition, this space will honor the award-winning choir and off-the-charts dancing talents, which will allow the school to express its respect for the students' remarkable skills at the same time that it offers students and educators activities with which they may not yet be familiar.
Opportunity. Education. Hope. It’s all good.
Please take a moment to look at the transformation, from beginning to middle to end. Through your generosity, the UP team in the USA and in South Africa managed to take an abandoned classroom and transform it into a peaceful place of learning and growth.
The studio project (and numerous recent UP projects) was overseen by Coert Erasmus, a dear friend of Universal Promise. In Coert Universal Promise had found a treasure, a man, as Deputy Principal Tutani described, with a golden heart. And then on Sunday, August 30th, he passed away - leaving us all shocked and deeply saddened.
Coert was a man of unparalleled integrity. He was devoted to serving the community, never with a hint of greed. Coert was the classic salt-of-the-earth, a human being without one cell of pretentiousness. He was motivated by only goodness, humor, and fairness - a man who straddled the social divisions with humility and grace.
If we could sprinkle every town in every country on every continent with versions of Coert, we would all see more equality, contentment, genuine friendship, humor, and all that is good in this world. We must strive to live as he lived, with a youthful spirit and an unwavering drive to do what is right, not with fanfare and self-aggrandizement – but only with what matters: seeing the goodness in everyone and living that truth within ourselves.
Thank you to all of you for supporting this project, which allows Coert's precious legacy to live on at Samkelwe Secondary School.
All that remains now is the purchase of self-defense mats, yoga mats, and an assortment of accessories. Please help us raise these funds by sharing the news of this project; we are confident that in a post-COVID-19 world, the students and educators will avail themselves of these gifts and keep Coert in their hearts with every step.
Thank you.
Links:
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