Hi there

I am contacting you from Nansindlela School, Ingwavuma in Kwazulu-Natal. We are a government school which is run according to Christian principles and is quite unique in the context of South Africa today. I am a chartered accountant and my wife is a teacher. We returned to South Africa this year from having spent 4 years working in the Czech Republic and London. As was always our intention we are taking this year out from our normal careers to help out at Nansindlela School in the tradition of how the school has operated to date. I have been assisting the principal with the finances of the school and in developing a concrete vision and strategy for the future as well as the recruitment of suitably experienced, qualified and Christian teachers. It is in this last area that I hope that you will be willing and able to to assist us.

Here is our vision and a brief history of our rather unique school that I hope will prompt you to help to support our future:

We have a dream to develop a centre of excellence in a far flung and extremely underdeveloped corner of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, in a community:

* suffering from poverty and the effects of HIV/AIDS,

* where the social consequences of a migrant labour system have had a debilitating effect on family life,

* where schools are poorly resourced and classrooms overcrowded, and

* where a high percentage of educators themselves are underqualified and overwhelmed by the educational challenge that faces them.

But we do not want to become an exclusive and elitist "ivory tower" in the bush.

We want to work in partnership with the Department of Education and other state schools in our area, as a model and centre of training and outreach to improve the standard of education in the wider school community.

Nansindlela School was founded in 1993 out of the vision of 3 women: a missionary, a doctors wife and a high school teacher who, having recently arrived in the area soon discovered that the majority of her learners struggled to understand English. They therefore expressed a desire to start an English-medium primary school. The local community responded enthusiastically and so the school was born. It was initially housed in the missionary's garage but eventually moved into the first three classrooms, funded by the DG Murray Trust.

Since then the school has grown to 2 pre-school classes and instruction from grades 1 to 10 for 348 learners. It is housed in 11 classrooms that have been built entirely with private funding even though Nansindlela is a state school. We are currently completing the construction of 5 new classrooms and a science lab generously funded by the Japanese Embassy, the DG Murray Trust yet again and the RB Hagart Trust.

Parents welcomed the use of English as the medium of instruction as they feel that their children are disadvantaged in the matric (school-leaving) exams by having to cope with an English question paper and also because of the obvious benefits of fluency in a global language. Testimony to the standard of education provided at the school is the significant number of learners whose parents are principals of other local schools as well as the academic success achieved by past Nansindlela learners in urban schools.

One of the most significant contributors to Nansindlela's success over the years has been the involvement of highly qualified outsiders who have given up far more lucrative careers to support the vision of the school. We have also been supported by volunteers from within and without South Africa, in particular GAP year students from the UK, who have assisted with teaching and extra-mural activities.

Nansindlela has become a centre of excellent education in the community of Ingwavuma. We believe it is now time to expand our vision and share this excellence with the wider community of schools by developing Nansindlela into a more effective model of and training centre for excellent rural education.

In order to continue with our vision in the new year we need 7 new experienced Christian teachers at various levels throughout the school. I am therefore appealing to you to help us to spread the attached brochure to as many Christian teachers as possible. It does sound like we are situated in the back of the beyond and way out of anybody's comfort zone but this is a fantastic place and God is doing awesome things here. So it would be great if you could use your resources to challenge as many teachers as possible to at least read the brochure and call us for a chat. I would really appreciate it if you could contact me and let me know whether you are able to do this for us. You may have gotten hold of this brochure by some other means and if so I do apologise for any duplication but we are trying to spread our net as wide as possible.

If you require any more information please feel free to contact me at the numbers below or visit our website at www.nansindlela.org

Sincerely yours
David Irish
Tel: 035 591 0366/082 4499 253

Download the brochure (PDF file)