Staff, beneficiaries and friends of the MRP Foundation were treated to an
inspiring performance by the talented Zilungisele Primary School choir who
joined voices with Durban musos and MRP Foundation ambassadors, Gangs of
Ballet, at the Barnyard Theatre at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping on June 20.
The
evening opened with a heartwarming
reflection of the past decade by MRP Foundation Director, Natasja Ambrosio, who
shared some of the MRP Foundation’s extraordinary journey with the audience: “When
we started our journey in 2005 we had to think outside of the box. We had and
still have enormous challenges such as rising unemployment, extreme in-equality
and an ever changing landscape that keeps throwing challenges at us every
single day but we couldn’t achieve what we wanted to
without many valuable partnerships.”
Ambrosio went on to highlight some of the MRP Foundation’s
milestones from their decade of working with youth in South Africa, including
establishing the only school physical education endorsed programme by the
Department of Education. Centres of excellence in eight provinces allow 67,000
children from 236 schools to partake in physical activity on a daily basis.
Through the holistic MRP Foundation Schools programme, five
schools in rural KwaDukuza, including Zilungisele Primary School, are now
outperforming schools in their district, province and nationally on their average
performance.
“The early years also showed us that there was a lost generation
of youth who didn’t receive a good education. We realised we needed to do
something about the youth who needed a ‘jump start’ in life so that they are
able to unlock a job and care for their families. Over 20,000 youth have been
able to access training programmes through our Jump Start skills development
programme and many have gone onto to be employed within Mr Price Group stores
or in the retail environment. In the last three years alone we have been able
to unlock an annual salary value of over R153,000,000 for these young people
and these families,” Ambrosio
added.
For Nonkululeko Mazibuko, a Jump Start Pre Production
Manufacturing Programme graduate, her learning journey with the MRP Foundation
has enabled her to support herself and her family through an internship that
has led to a fulltime job at a clothing manufacturer. Although Nonkululeko
already had a diploma in Clothing Management from DUT she found it
exceptionally difficult to progress into the next step of her career:
“My whole journey has been amazing and I have learnt so much,”
says Mazibuko. “With the MRP Foundation it was easier to start an internship,
earn an income and support my son. The experience has opened my mind and
my heart to knowing that there are better things in life and that as the youth
of South Africa we are getting help from organisations like the MRP
Foundation."
With a dream to impact millions of children in this country the
MRP Foundation is excited to move into the next season of their journey and
with the support of link-minded individuals, business and other NPO’s and
NGO’s, anything is possible.
If you would like to join hands with the MRP Foundation to help
create a generation of young South Africans able to author their own future
please visit http://www.mrpfoundation.org/pledge.aspx
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