REPORT BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

It is my great pleasure to report on progress during the 2008/2009 financial year on what continues to be an extremely exciting and promising project. The more I work on it, the more dimensions and facets it seems to develop and the more the scale of it seems to increase – I have to keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint! The reality is that education touches on almost every aspect of our individual and collective lives and therefore a project that addresses the issue of education will impact on everything else. The ramifications of the HSRP spread ever outward, like ripples on water, and it becomes increasingly important that no steps are missed nor improperly implemented, as we build the foundations for the Project’s success.

Anyone who visits a school like Healdtown cannot fail to see the benefits a restored Healdtown will bring to the community in which it is situated – a community currently depressed and demotivated largely through unemployment and disease. The goal of the HSRP is to restore these schools as centres of cultural and educational excellence – not only for the students and staff, but for the surrounding communities too. One can envisage, for example, a Healdtown library and resource centre accessible to students, staff and those who live in the area, as well as halls or sporting facilities which can host a number of community events. The school grounds – currently commonage for the villages close by, and containing the local Methodist chapel – could once more become a vibrant community hub, especially when the boarding houses are in use again.

I am greatly encouraged by recent news (July 2009) that work is being done to re-surface the access road from Fort Beaufort to Healdtown. Healdtown alumnus, the Revd Dr Simon Gqubule, reports that this road has been a problem since the late 1940s! Its parlous state has been responsible for preventing teachers from getting to school on rainy days in recent years. I sincerely thank all who are responsible for moving this along. This is wonderful proof that this project is taken seriously by all South Africans, at all levels, and that they are willing to use their resources to support our goals.

I have endeavoured, in the report which follows, to give a brief overview of the work we have done during the 2008/2009 financial period. As I write this, we are following up on many more exciting plans and ideas which promise to advance the objectives of the HSRP. You will hear of them in due course. Our website – www.historicschools.org – is a useful source of information on the Project, and I urge you to keep in touch with our progress.

Njongo Ndungane
Executive Director