Lyndoch Primary School is a grade school servicing 5 to 15 year olds (roughly) in the Winelands of the Western Cape province of South Africa. I traveled there this spring to participate in the Learning for Sustainable community Engagement. The experience proved to be one of the most powerful of my life. The school’s roots as we know it today began in 1990 when the school received a grant of R120, 000 (Ten thousand US Dollars is my guesstimate) from the Western Cape Education Department. This was due in part to the fact that the facility was deemed second worst in the province, and most in need of aid. The meager sum was hardly enough to construct a successful rural school; Lyndoch’s roots are very humble. It was also during 1990 that Mr. Jansen, the present principal, began his stint working at the primary school. He is now the operational headmaster of the school, and answers directly to the parents of the students. The same year, 1990 was the year the Endhoven family of the local Speir winery approached the school and donated the first of its annual contributions. With this money, they bought the current estate and financed construction. The building is designed to be completely ecologically friendly, and was thus constructed using materials that were already present at the new site.

Organization

Lyndoch is an English/Afrikaans institution. Upon graduation, the students have become prepared to read and wrote in both languages fluently. Lyndoch primary is a Christian institution. The children say prayers multiple times daily in school. This is seen as being inspirational morally to the children, as well as inspiring to the work ethic of the children. A Parent-Teacher organization exists in order to give the families of students more influence over the schools working. It’s ability to connect the parent to the school is still a work in progress.

The Children’s Project Manager and professor of the LSCE program at Lyndoch, Grant Demas, was hired 4 years ago to help curb the outstanding amount of violence that was present among learners. Since his hiring, violence has gone down substantially and the instances of serious injuries due to violence have dropped to zero. Mr. Demas has also taken on the responsibility of teaching the grade 8 boys. They have been identified as having some of the highest instances of difficulties, as they are coming of age.

For students too young to attend grade 1, there is a Grade R (kindergarten) teacher who is responsible for teaching the learners before entering primary school. Today in South Africa, students are required to attend grade R as a pre-requisite for attendance of grade 1. There has been a large increase in the number of children attending grade R since the ANC government implemented this change.

Goals

There is no goal that is pursued by the school that stands alone. In order to reach one goal, the school must set more to improve on. There are goal(s). One of which is primarily to educate and prepare students from the surrounding farms and townships of Kyamandi and Eersteriver for the future. The hope is that all Lyndoch students will attempt to go on to high school and receive a secondary school diploma, something which is not compulsory in South Africa. The school makes it a point to imprint high degree of dignity on each of the students. This can be a daunting task, given the situations many students at the school come from. The nurturing of a sense of self-worth and the value of hard work are rudimentary in the schools philosophy. The school hopes to expose kids who are disinterested to something they may like, as a way of inspiring them to continue as productive and healthy members of their community. The idea is overall to change the mindsets of the students and therefore the community. This is unattainable without addressing other deficiencies. For this reason, the school makes it a goal to become ever more connected to its community, in Lyndoch, as well as the parents of the students, wherever they are from. Parent –Teacher meetings are held each semester for parents to be informed as to their child’s progress, and teachers use the opportunity to understand more about the home life of each individual student.

Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement

The goals of the LSCE program are to augment the efforts of community leaders to enable empowerment, by bringing in energetic and enthusiastic university students to learn from the transformation Lyndoch is undergoing. I took lectures as well as spent time actually working in the classroom alongside the students regular teacher. On the days i worked in the classroom i had to prepare coursework for the children. I was asked to incorporate what i learned from the lecture portion of the course into the curriculum my group and i wrote. The idea is that both groups educate one another in different ways, and that the synergy created will produce a stronger community that produced well educated and healthy children (the Lyndoch Community), as well as individuals who properly understand the role they can play in development. Thanks to the infrastructure provided by the program, the work done by the LSCE students has the ability to repeat itself easily and readily with each batch that comes through. As I write this there is another group of students sitting where I was not 4 months ago, continuing the same projects my comrades and I were working on. the following is a clip my groupmate, Anna, threw together. Bigups to Mandoza, the rapper you hear in the background.

This is another example of the work done by the program:

We quickly learned that there are specific issues which need to be handled properly in regards to development. Ethically the most important thing we can do while engage in our work in Lyndoch is the constant questioning of ourselves and our work. Semantics plays an important role in this. It would be easy to identify what we do as such: “We are a few smart college students who came to do charity work for the poor little children of Lyndoch.” The way we need to be contextualizing the work so as to remain ethical in what we do is as follows: “We are privileged students who have come to engage with the less privileged community of Lyndoch in a dialogue concerning what is needed to enable the empowerment of the community.” There is no theory that we may find in a book somewhere that would have equipped us to come solve the problems of the community. Our awareness of what is needed in the community comes directly from our work on the ground there.

Challenges

The problems facing the school are many, which is what makes the growing success of the school so much more monumental. It is important to have an understanding of the most common and harsh realities the school has to handle on a daily basis. Local children are forced to walk down dangerous roads to attend school. The bathroom facilities in their homes are very often outside the house, and few of the homes of the children are powered by electricity.

Most importantly, but probably least apparent upon a visit to the school is the condition of abject poverty from which the majority of the students of Lyndoch primary come. The scenic beauty of the Cape Winelands and the affluence drawn in by local wineries masks the conditions under which the wine is actually produced. The families of the children bring in between 700 and 1500 rand per month (200-300 USD). This sum has to feed many members of whole families.

Alcoholism is a massive problem in the community. It is a hangover from the days of slavery and apartheid, when the Dorp system of payment in alcohol was used. Lyndoch has among the highest levels of fetal alcohol victims in the world. The among the symptoms of this debilitating disease are heart defects, deformities of joints, limbs, and fingers, slow physical growth before and after birth, vision difficulties or hearing problems, small head circumference and brain size, poor coordination, sleep problems, mental retardation and delayed development, and distinctive facial features. The prevalence of this disease is a direct result of their parent’s abuse of alcohol, but also as a result of local farmers continuing antiquated practices of payment. These conditions existing in a highly paternalistic society such as Lyndoch breed child abuse.

Many of the students have very young parents, who are mostly uneducated. This can create problems of alienation from their children once that child has reached a level of education equal to or greater than those of the parents. Epilepsy is an issue in many developing countries due to the difficult situation in which mothers must endure pregnancy. Lyndoch is no different. Sometimes it is referred to as shaken baby syndrome, children suffer dangerous seizures when they become exited, or at any moment as all. A large number of students have lost, and will continue to lose parents and caretakers due to HIV/AIDS and TB related infections. Fatherlessness is prevalent.

Lyndoch is a chance at hope. It was learning about development in the LSCE program that I became convinced for the first time in my life of the real possibility of changing the world for the better. For all of Lyndoch’s problems, its beauty and work ethic are things which will never leave me. It is important to stress that this school has been a profoundly positive force in the community for the last 20 years, and will continue to be so as more aid from the community and stakeholders come in. To quote the headmaster, the community of Lyndoch is “Very far from where we want to be, but also very far from where they have come,” But what community today isn’t?

Check out more photos here:

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Contact Information:

PRIMARY SCHOOL

P.O. BOX 80

LYNEDOCH, 7603

Western Cape, South Africa

TEL: 021-881 3515 / 881 3663

FAX: 021-881-3515

PRINCIPAL: MR GML JANSEN

admin@lynedochps.wcape.school.za