Cycle Across Canada for SMYLe
Donation protected
The Soweto Marimba Youth League, or SMYLe, is in its 10th year of operation and need a significant hand-up in order to get to its next level of progress.
Our programme looks like a music project, but its actually all about Maths.
Our kids live in the community of Dobsonville, Soweto, in South Africa and are deemed 'at risk youth' due to the scourge of drugs, crime and poverty. We use the music to keep kids focussed on the ONE thing that will permit them to break their cycle of poverty: Education!
The kids want access to the music - noting that none of their schools offer music - but we want the Maths.
In their schools - a government policy - our kids are only expected to achieve 30% in Maths/Maths Literacy (among other courses) to "pass", whereas we believe that with the right instruction, our highly intelligent kids can do FAR better.
Thus, we're hoping to build our own 'SMYLe Centre' in their community, and then hire a full-time Maths teacher to push the kids to their full potential.
In 2013, the last time I - Michael H Rea - could afford to hire a teacher full-time, our cohort of 62 kids achieved an average improvement of 32% in Maths/Maths Literacy, and our average mark was above 50%.
At present, our kids are averaging above 44% (15% better than their schools' averages), but we really need to provide more for the kids in order to give them a real chance at academic success...and thus at getting tertiary qualifications...and thus a job that will help them help themselves (and their families) to break free from poverty.
Our programme looks like a music project, but its actually all about Maths.
Our kids live in the community of Dobsonville, Soweto, in South Africa and are deemed 'at risk youth' due to the scourge of drugs, crime and poverty. We use the music to keep kids focussed on the ONE thing that will permit them to break their cycle of poverty: Education!
The kids want access to the music - noting that none of their schools offer music - but we want the Maths.
In their schools - a government policy - our kids are only expected to achieve 30% in Maths/Maths Literacy (among other courses) to "pass", whereas we believe that with the right instruction, our highly intelligent kids can do FAR better.
Thus, we're hoping to build our own 'SMYLe Centre' in their community, and then hire a full-time Maths teacher to push the kids to their full potential.
In 2013, the last time I - Michael H Rea - could afford to hire a teacher full-time, our cohort of 62 kids achieved an average improvement of 32% in Maths/Maths Literacy, and our average mark was above 50%.
At present, our kids are averaging above 44% (15% better than their schools' averages), but we really need to provide more for the kids in order to give them a real chance at academic success...and thus at getting tertiary qualifications...and thus a job that will help them help themselves (and their families) to break free from poverty.
Organizer
Michael H. Rea
Organizer
Cambridge, ON
