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Adult Learners' Week is an international advocacy campaign that aims to promote a culture of lifelong learning and the provincial celebrations form an integral part of the Learning Cape Festival.

On Saturday, 30 August, learners and educators marched through central Cape Town in a colour banner procession to celebrate their achievements and to encourage others to take up the challenge of lifelong learning.

The Provincial Awards Ceremony held at the Civic Centre was one of the highlights of the Learning Cape Festival. Ms Mercia Andrews, of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE), delivered a challenging keynote address calling on provincial and national government to take action and commit resources to ensure that basic education is accessible to all. (TCOE - 021 685 3033)

We encourage you to meet with (and talk to) this year's award winning educators, learners and projects who now go forward to the National Adult Learners' Week Awards to be held in Bloemfontein on 6 September:

Educator: Erna Sittig - Foundation for Enterprise Development
Noordhoek Campus, False Bay College - (021) 785 7760

Over the past 3 years, Erna has drawn on her skills in psychology, recreation and business development to manage Febdev's SMME intervention programme for micro-entrepreneurs from impoverished communities.

She has developed an interactive business-coaching approach rooted in the development of learner's life and coping skills and the twenty emerging entrepreneurs under her wing are offered hands-on support on a day-to-day basis. Erna offers herself as a sounding board for learners to work through their own problems and creates a safe space where learners can reflect on their experiences - in the world of work, study and community life. This selfless intervention often happens after hours and during home visits in the local informal settlement has helped to build learners' trust and confidence.

Interactions with learners are often filled with laughter and dialogue, in which lessons about life and business go hand in hand. As a mentor, Erna helps learners set goals, overcome obstacles and learn from their mistakes. The celebration of business successes have helped to raise the status of entrepreneurs in Masiphumelele and motivate other community members to start their own business instead of seeking formal employment.

Learner: Corneels Snell
Matie Community Service (021) 808 3644

Corneels is a farm worker at Swartrivier on the Bottelary Road near Stellenbosch. Corneels first heard of the literacy classes run by Matie Community Service in 1999 and immediately phoned the organisation to make arrangements for classes to take place at the Swartriver farm. He motivated other farm workers to join the classes and got permission from the farmer to make use of a small hall on the farm.

By 2000, the number of learners on the farm had outgrown the hall, and Corneels organised transport with the farmer so that classes could move to the Koelenhof Primary School. Corneels wrote his level 1 exams in 2001 and is now attending level 3 classes.

Last year, Corneels began to farm pigs on a small scale. Initially, he shared the profits with the farmer, but when he realized that he was doing most of the work he opted to buy out the farmer's share and is now farming for himself. He leads by example and continues to motivate and inspire other farm workers to take up the challenge of lifelong learning.

Group: Bambani Bowl Production Group
Noordhoek Valley Training Centre - (021) 785 7760

Based in Masiphumelele, the Noordhoek Valley Training Centre runs a variety of training programmes that empower members of the local community to run their own businesses. The Bambani Bowl was initially developed as part of training exercise at the centre's Ceramic Production Unit. The bowl incorporates a variety of techniques including figurine moulding, slab building, press moulding, painting and glazing.

The first Bambani Bowls were exhibited as one of the showpieces of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 and have since become known worldwide. The bowls are now sold at shops throughout South Africa and have been exported to Canada and Europe. The Bambani Bowl Production Group has produced over 700 of these bowls since April 2002 and generated over R100 000 in the process.

The group is very supportive of its members and their success has motivated many other community members to start training at the Centre. Two women have graduated from the programme as entrepreneurs in their own right and they are currently completing a very large order for The Body Shop International in Europe.

Centre: St. Joseph's Adult Education Programme
Keith Adams - (021) 685 1257

St Joseph's offers and innovative Adult Education Programme that integrates arts and culture with literacy, numeracy and skills training programmes. This free cultural programme has included seminars and workshops by South African film makers, women writers from America and performances by local and international musicians. The centre also aims to make alternative healthcare accessible to previously disadvantaged communities and offers courses in tai chi, yoga and kung fu.

St Joseph's was the first adult education centre to open its doors to refugees from other areas of conflict in Africa. Refugee and local learners work side by side. Learner's stories were published in the book we came from Mandela which celebrates the cultural life of refugee community. The centre also published Uncovered Mirrors a collection of short stories by local unpublished writers which has been included in the recommended reading list of the Western Cape Education Department.

The centre has developed a number of different strategies to ensure learning is accessible to all. Literacy learners receive bursaries to attend training programmes in business and computer skills where costs are subsidised by the general fee-paying public. The centre also offers a free childcare service to enable women to attend classes. The programme also serves disabled learners from Rosedon House in Lansdowne and raised funds to build a ramp to make the centre wheelchair friendly.

Literacy classes are used to open the door to further learning opportunities. This year, St Joseph's launched the first Xhosa Montessori training course, and one of the centre's literacy learners is now enrolled in the educare programme.

Lifetime Achievers Awards: Sister Marina Lawrence
Maryland Literacy Project (021) 692 1359

Sister Marina Lawrence is the founder member and director of Maryland Literacy Project. This proudly South African lady was sent by her community, the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, to teach in Hanover Park. She welcomed this as it meant working with families from her home parish, Holy Cross in District Six. She could indeed identify with and support them as they struggled to start a new life on the Cape Flats after being relocated by the Group Areas Act of the Apartheid government. During this time, she realised how many adults could not read and write. Often she was requested to read confidential information, personal letters and school progress reports.

After a need analysis the challenge was taken up. On the evening of 16 June 1976, the Maryland Literacy Project was launched in the Maryland Training Centre. Competent volunteers of all races, all denominations and from all walks of life offered a dedicated service and in response to a dire need for skills development a social outreach programme was started. Now women receive training in literacy, numeracy, health care, nutrition, sewing, knitting and computing.

Sister Marina is a strong advocate for lifelong learning and with her excellent project management this adult basic education and training programme has thrived over the last 27 years. She has travelled to Germany, Ireland, Thailand, Senegal and Zimbabwe to network with other literacy programmes and enhance teaching methods. Her regular visits to Lamberts Bay, Clanwilliam, Ceres, Grabouw, Vredendal, Bredasdorp and Crossroads to promote adult learning on farms and in the workplace has also borne fruit as the number of Maryland satellite centres has continued to grow over the years. With her vision, creativity and positive spirit, Sister Marina is an inspiration to us all.

Nancy Murray
ABE Services - (021) 683 8597

Nancy Murray has been a key player in the field of adult education and training for the past 25 years. Her involvement with mother tongue literacy started with Sister Marina at Maryland, where they jointly ran a Xhosa literacy training course.

At the age of 55, she returned to UCT as a mature student and was then offered a position in the School of Adult Education. Here, her commitment to building a reading culture resulted in the publication of Thandeka's Story: A guide for literacy teachers which continues to shape the thinking of adult educators across the country.

When Nancy left UCT and co-founded ABE Development Services, she became part of a team that was committed to transforming the face of mother tongue literacy practice in South Africa. Here Nancy co-developed the innovative mother tongue Fundani courses and accompanying readers.

Nancy insists that she has retired but cannot resist responding, over and over again, to new challenges and involvement in pioneering work. It is difficult to find someone with as much dedication, enduring energy and commitment who at the same time remains humble and down to earth.

Additional notes:

Together we develop: Literacy, Learning and a Voice for All

Imagine what it must feel like to be unable to read a letter from a loved one, to sign your name, to read the Bible, to check your pay slip, to read a story to your children. Being illiterate limits the decisions and choices that people can make on a daily basis. It also limits access to jobs and full participation in society.

His Grace, The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archibishop of Cape Town

From the 1-8 September, adult learners and educators from around South Africa will come together to celebrate Adult Learners' Week (ALW). This advocacy campaign has particular significance in our country where 3 million adults cannot read or write and still more believe that they are too old to learn.

Adult Learners' Week aims to celebrate the achievements of adult learners and educators, mobilise funds and resources to support adult education initiatives, and encourage all South Africans to engage in lifelong education and training.

The campaign comprises a multitude of local celebrations and special events held at adult learning centres throughout the country that will culminate in Provincial Awards Ceremonies where the achievements of exceptional learners and educators are recognised. The week ends on 8 September with the celebration of International Literacy Day when we reflect on the challenges facing an estimated 8 million South Africans who are functionally illiterate and we pay tribute to those learners who have already taken their first steps on the pathway to lifelong learning.

Adult education is not just about literacy. It embraces a diverse range of learning experiences from adults who are learning the basic skills of reading and writing to those who are completing further degrees and diplomas. It also includes learnerships in industry and community based training programmes led by NGOs.

This year our theme: Together we develop: Literacy, Learning and a Voice for All recognises that literacy is first step in a process of lifelong learning that equips adults to speak out and play an active role in social and economic developments.

Despite severe funding constraints, the adult education sector has continued to equip learners with the skills, knowledge and confidence to play a pro-active role in community life. We need to broaden this investment in our human potential in order to stimulate the growth of a vibrant economy and democratic society.

Adult learning has the power to transform the lives of individuals and the wider community.

In the words of Nosipho Matyeni, an adult learner from Philani, Khayelitsha:

I learnt how adults can start to see things in a better way and can challenge life without violence. I know now that everyone has a right to say his or her feelings. I see that I can change things. I know that in meetings I - as a woman - have the same right to speak as the men. I have confidence to question what happens in my organisation and in my community.

For more information about Adult Learners' Week contact: Farrell Hunter on 447 4898 or 082 212 7572, Lin Helme on 851 1427 or Lori Lake on 689 1234 or visit our website www.aldsa.org for more information.

Issued by Western Cape Provincial Government

1 September 2003