Case Studies & Stories


Athi’s Flying Lesson

Athenkosi Vincent Mbinda is a 13 year old student in Franschhoek who lives with his family in two adjoining shacks in the heart of the Tsotsombeni settlement. Although Athi is fortunate to have 2 living/loving parents, Athi’s living environment is harsh. A growing boy, he must buy his one pair of shoes with an eye on them lasting for 2-3 years, such is the financial hardship in his life. Despite a life of extreme material deprivation, Athi is bright, positive, full of humour and ambition, and determined to shape his life rather than let his environment shape his future. As a former Dream Teamer {The Kusasa Project’s program for gifted primary school children}, Athi, who is now attending high school has volunteered to assist Doug & Dave with the programs at Dalubuhle school, giving of himself even when he faces huge challenges in his own life. His commitment to give back to his former schoolmates reflects the values The Kusasa Project hopes to instil in the children in its programs.



Athi expressed as his dream for the future to become a pilot. After a few conversations with a local resident who happens to be a pilot and has a helipad on his property, Athi was given the chance not only to take a ride in a helicopter, but also to hold the stick and feel the sensation of the craft as a pilot would while in the co-pilot seat, headphones on and the valley far below him. As Athi grilled the pilot on the workings of the copter, his smile grew wider with the joy of experiencing something which seemed so far out of his reach just months before. Such experiences can often stoke a fire in a child to reach, work and strive through many difficulties toward a goal for the future.


Bridge House Comes To the Township

Bridge House School www.bridgehouse.org.za is the local private school (both prep & college) serving a predominantly white, relatively affluent student body. Having been in existence for just over 10 years, the school has achieved great success on many fronts, both academic and sporting. As part of the ethos of Bridge House, students are encouraged to reach out to the world, including to those in need. Through The Kusasa Project, Bridge House students from the College (primarily grades 10-12) are given an opportunity to work directly with underprivileged primary school children in the area on a weekly basis. Acting as a facilitator and directly in coordination with Rob McKay of Bridge House, The Kusasa Project brings 8-10 students to Dalubuhle School to assist with Dream Team programs in English & Math as well as to work with remedial learners in reading on a 1or 2:1 basis. Although many of these children live within a mile of one another, this has been the first time they have had direct contact with one another, seeing each other in a cooperative, kid-to-kid light rather than as a part of a group designated by skin color, economic background or language.



By courageously breaking down barriers built up over years and through lack of direct experience, the students from both schools have come to understand better what each can bring to the other, the basic humanity of each other, as well as (for the Bridge House student) the realities of life as a child in a deprived area. It is through such interaction that we seek to build understanding, cooperation, empathy and desire to reach out across artificial boundaries. Helping students from very different backgrounds to work together and understand one another is part of the key for South Africa for the future.


Melvin King & Valley Math Initiative

The parents of Bridge House School Prep (primary) have the privilege of having an enormously skilled, dynamic and knowledgeable Head serving their children. Melvin King comes from Christel House South Africa, a school serving the poorest of the poor children of the Cape Town area’s townships and slums. Christel House has schools internationally and is an inspirational model for South African schools to follow. www.christelhouse.org



Melvin, in his brief tenure at Bridge House, is helping to continue the development of the Bridge House students and staff in the direction of incorporating community service as an integral part of the educational process. In doing so he has embraced the outreach of The Kusasa Project in working to increase interaction between Bridge House students/teachers and the lesser resourced local schools, most particularly Dalubuhle School. With his support, various initiatives such as a weekly sporting exchange and an outreach to Mathematics instructors in the valley schools have come to fruition.

The first Valley Math meeting was held the first week of May and viewed as a great success by all attendees.

Such was the enthusiasm of the Dalubuhle instructors present to share the expertise of the group that they requested Bridge House adopt Dalubuhle to share ideas and methods across a disciplinary spectrum. The experience of Bridge House teachers who work with class sizes of 16-25 students in spacious, well resourced classrooms was contrasted with the Dalubuhle experience where teachers average 50-60 students in the sparest of facilities, with few educational tools beyond a chalkboard and chalk. The appreciation for the challenges of this environment was not lost on the Bridge House teachers who have vowed to visit Dalubuhle (most for the 1st time!) to better understand how they could assist their peers and what they could learn which would help them in their classes.


A New Teacher for Grade 1 Dalubuhle School

A 55:1 student teacher ratio can be a challenge for any educators, but in a terribly underresourced school with poor children with a myriad of educational and social problems, as well as some very bright children needing extra stimulation, such a ratio is almost overwhelming. The 1st grade at Dalubuhle School in 2007 numbers 67 children – children the vast majority of whom have never set foot in a playschool or nursery and thus to whom an educational environment is quite foreign. Having been contacted by a local businesswoman who is aware of the activities of The Kusasa Project, we were asked by her what is the greatest need at our school.



She was, by virtue of her business activities, her infectious enthusiasm and irrestible powers of persuasion able to secure an anonymous, large contribution to be used for the children of the valley. When we approached the principal of Dalubuhle School for her top 5 needs, she listed an additional teacher for Grade 1 as her top 10! With that clear mandate we then negotiated to have these funds targeted primarily to that end and as of the start of Term 2, Grade 1 class sizes were reduced in half, giving the educators a far greater chance to make an impact with these impressionable students, and to do so with far more moving space in each class than before – a key to be able to work with the youngest learners. As resources and space allow, we would look to provide additional mainstream educators as well as remedial and special needs instructors to the school.


Community Service: The kids help refurbish the Creche

At no time was one of the core themes of The Kusasa Project more vividly displayed than during a recent initiative which we participated in to help a local crèche. Spearheaded by Ron Whytock, founder of local community service coordinator Franco, and assisted by Jonathan Peach and Paul Hawthorne, work was undertaken to make emergency repairs and basic refurbishment at Ihkweysi Educare, a crèche run in two rundown, leaky shacks to serve up to 60 toddlers & infants a day.



The poor condition of this facility, which would not pass for a poor garden shed in most countries can not be exaggerated and those visitors who see it are so moved that most have asked immediately how they can help to improve the conditions. In starting work to make dry and useable a 5 meter x 3 meter room {to be used by over 50 children} requiring us to break up old flooring, mix cement the African way (throwing sand, cement and stones on the ground, adding water and mixing with spades) and dig holes to bury the rubble of the old floor, we didn’t count on the help of a band of eager volunteers. A number of township children, eager to help and knowing what the crèche was used for, demanded to be a part of our work gang. 8-12 year old kids, most half our size, ended up pulling picks and shovels out of our hands and getting on with the work like men twice their age (and size!). Not once did these children ask for or expect payment. When asked why they were helping it was as a thanks for the time we had spent with them in school and sport and, importantly, because they said the little kids needed their help.



In an environment where many feel people are looking for handouts, here we saw in the clearest and most inspirational of way, the goodness and humanity of barefoot, raggedly dressed kids lending a hand to others who needed their help.