Education Dedication!

What a story! This is absolute dedication to education amid the destructive storms and flooding in South Africa.

On the second day of the storms (11 April) in KwaZulu-Natal, our founder, Dr Margaret Turnbull and Yvonne Johnson from Partners for Possibility were due to lead a training course for staff at a school near Pinetown, on the outskirts of Durban. The training was the first of two very important sessions they had planned with school staff to ensure that the teachers were equipped to formalise the behaviour management teaching process before they introduced it to the children.

The pictures of the road they drove along only one hour earlier (when the road was still a road!) show the huge amount of rain that fell in a very short space of time, causing the road to become a destructive river.

This is Margaret’s story in her own words:

“There was already a question as to whether we would be able to reach the school given the weather, but the school Principal and staff were ready and very eager for the training to take place, so we set off.

The journey to the school was difficult, negotiating several roads that were becoming small streams, while rubble was beginning to wash across the road from the banks lining the side of the road. Eventually we managed to reach the school in the township area behind Pinetown.

As we worked during the hour from 1.30pm, the storm grew stronger, and the rain got heavier and louder. By the end of the training session, we saw that we would have to find an alternative route home which was going to be very difficult. We gratefully accepted the Principal’s kind offer to assist and we followed his car back to the main road – the M13 – to get home. I am not sure we would have managed without him!”

Our thoughts are with all the communities in the KwaZulu-Natal region who have been affected by these terrible storms, and with Margaret and Yvonne as they continue to deliver support to educators and schools under very, very challenging circumstances including lack of electricity and water.

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