Tomorrow Trust is about giving support, hope, opportunity and the possibility of change to the youth in our society. The gift of a future, be it success through a stable job or living their dreams passionately. Tomorrow Trust provides a complete support program that enables South Africa’s orphan and vulnerable children, who are in need of academic and psychosocial support to overcome shortfalls in the public education system, to reach self-sustainability and community mindedness. Tomorrow Trust provides both academic and holistic emotional support over the child’s entire scholastic career and into gainful employment. What makes this difference possible is a complete service offering and a strategically focussed organisation.
The Tomorrow Trust gives these children the opportunity to become self sustainable, self empowered as well as compassionate, proactive independent members of their economy and society. In a sense Tomorrow Trust is about helping these children find and form their own identity. Our identity as a human being makes us recognizable in society, it gives us a sense of purpose. The impact of a person’s identity is profound; it speaks beyond any design or message.
You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow
where your thoughts take you - James Allen
Tomorrow Trust Vision
To make meaningful and sustainable impact on the lives of Orphaned and Vulnerable children (OVC ) through holistic support and education in South Africa.
Tomorrow Trust Core Values
The Tomorrow Trust endeavors to reach its aims and objectives through teamwork, honesty, creativity, integrity, loyalty, proactivity, love and by always putting the needs of the beneficiary (child/youth) first.
Tomorrow Trust Mission
Tomorrow Trust’s mission is to have a meaningful and sustainable impact on the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children. This will be created through holistic support and education. The Tomorrow Trust gives these children the opportunity to become self sustainable, self empowered as well as compassionate, proactive independent members of their economy and society. Tomorrow Trust is about accessing individual potential.
The Tomorrow Trust is firmly committed to the education of OVC’s from grade R – matric (grade 12)and then on to Post Secondary through to employment.
Overview
Tomorrow Trust is the pioneer of exit strategy and sustainability for orphan and vulnerable children through education in South Africa. We are committed to assisting children/youth in passing their school exams through a Holiday School support programme and Saturday School Programme. Tomorrow Trust have partnered with highly successful schools where the teachers make themselves available to give the best education South Africa has to offer in order to bridge the gap in education that the children are exposed to.
Post secondary – Tomorrow Trust is committed to supporting any career that will make the child self sustainable and self supporting releasing them from dependency on charity. This support is holistic –covering both formal and informal education. Paths of study cover; IT, beauty courses, Hotel management and Culinary, Education, Medicine, Accountancy, Law and many others. Informal education is accessed through constant workshops covering issues around: critical thinking; self awareness; self mastery; CV writing; budgeting; hygiene and HIV training, human rights, sustainability and others.
The Tomorrow Trust was founded in 2005 by Kim Feinberg. Originally the organisation was created to assist orphaned and vulnerable youth with post secondary education (both formal and informal) in order to assist them in becoming self sustainable individuals. It was soon realised that taking these youth on after they have completed high school was insufficient in that their school leaving results were inadequate and not indicative of their potential. Furthermore their results did not allow them to access post secondary education. Thus the Tomorrow Trust has created a structure that comprises of steps in providing these OVC’s with a sustainable exit strategy from charity through education.
These steps include:
- PHASE 1a: School Holiday Programme
To support school going Orphan and Vulnerable children to reach their academic potential in Grade R – Grade 6 and Grade 10 -Grade 12. The holiday school Programme provides a safe learning environment where they are also guaranteed nutritious meals during their school holidays and individual academic attention.
- PHASE 1b: Saturday school Programme
The Saturday school is a fully sponsored programme. This programme provides additional support for the top learners that have been in the Grade 10-12 Holiday school programme in subjects such as English, Maths, Physical Science and Life Sciences to reach their potential pass rate and have marks that will enable the learners to enter into tertiary education.
- PHASE 1c: Teacher Development Programme
The Tomorrow Trust strives to ensure sustainability and impact is reached and more learners benefit from the Holiday school programme. This is the aim of the teacher development programme. Township teachers participate within the holiday school programme and team up with the Tomorrow Trust teacher for optimal mutual skills transfer. The Tomorrow Trust teacher is exposed to the understanding of the day to day life of the OVC learner and the Township teacher develops different methodologies and ideas on teaching bringing in the element of expertise and fun within their classrooms.
- PHASE 2: Post Secondary Program
Assist students (OVC) in accessing and completing a post secondary qualification such as Diplomas and Degrees that will allow them to enter the South African Job market as a skilled reliable individual. During this time we also ensure that their holistic needs are met such as providing them with a food and transport allowance and psychosocial support. Holistic training is an essential element of the Tomorrow Trust culture and vision.
- PHASE 3: Assisting Orphaned and or vulnerable youth in becoming independent of charity through assistance in finding employment in the South African Job market in order for them to be able to support and feed themselves and their families.
The Tomorrow Trust strives for sustainability and in doing so each programme works in conjunction with each other and filters into each other. This process is vital as it ensures the individual learners become self empowered, self reliant individuals that have been exposed to a flow of development that they would not have had access to without the Tomorrow Trust input.
Aims and objectives
Our work is dedicated to the children who inspired us to take on this project. Their unconditional love, their lack of bitterness and their passion despite their situations is awe – inspiring. Our aims and objective are to give these children the following;
Give them a voice to the world
Uplift their lives and assist to manifest their dreams and potential
Instill a sense of self responsibility and ownership
Give the tools for self empowerment
Facilitate the tools to assist with their success
Introduction to variants within society
Create leaders of Tomorrow
Infuse values of integrity, sincerity, compassion, love and honesty
Know and trust themselves and their own abilities despite their situations that they find themselves
Have the courage of their convictions to create a life that they can be proud of
To support individuals and groups who will add another dimension to our society due to their life experience.
To create individuals who will become positive role models to their younger generation
Legal Status
- The Trust is a legal registered Trust in South Africa – IT 6728/05
- The Tomorrow Trust is a recognized Non-Profit Organization ( NPO)
- Registration # – 045 224
- Fluxman Kallmeyer and Strime is the formal registered Legal firm dealing with all needs of the trust
- PWC is the formal registered Auditors of the Trust and project allowing for absolute transparency at all times.
Trustees
Kim Feinberg – Trustee/ Founder
Jonathan Cook- Chairman/Trustee
Rosie Motene– Trustee
Dorianne Weil – Trustee
Sharise Weiner- Trustee
Samuel Mensah- Trustee
Jack Phalane- Trustee
Roy Midlane- Trustee
Elizabeth Mokwena- Trustee
Karabo Leopeng- Trustee
Head Patron
Mervyn King
All Trustees and Patron are highly credible in all areas of business and social issues in South Africa
Sustainability of Tomorrow Trust
The Tomorrow Trust is a firm believer in sustainability as an organisations ability to meet the needs of the present whilst preparing to meet the needs that will arise in the future. With this in mind we have two main spheres of sustainability;
- Kim Feinberg’s Publications: The first two publications –“Tomorrow” and “A Mother’s Legacy” are both oral history based books. “Tomorrow” is testimony from orphans affected by HIV/Aids and “A Mother’s Legacy” is from and about mother’s infected with this disease. Both books are a window into the lives of the contributors with beautiful photographs done by South Africa’s most famous photographers. Both are coffee table books. The publications are sold for R160.00 and R260.00 respectively to both corporate and private individuals alike with 70% going directly into the support of our students.
- Kim Feinberg’s third publication – “Raising Wisdom”. This is an opportunity to hear the dreams, visions and wishes of our youth. The question is what are we doing about real problems in the world today? What actions will generations truly appreciate and judge you by? What changes will your actions and choices make? Drawing wisdom from celebrities such as Anthony Hopkins, Russel Simmons, Fran Drescher and Hugh Masekela (to name a few) this book asks us to hear the voices of our youth, and make choices that will positively impact their lives, their world and future. Focused on conversations surrounding the challenges facing our youth, “Raising Wisdom” asks us what we will impress and deliver for our children.
- To date we have raised R 2.8 Million with just these publications.
- The second element of our endeavour to become self sustainable is through a contractual commitment with our post secondary students. This agreement entails the students committing to paying 10% of their monthly salary to the Tomorrow Trust for a period of two years once employed. In this way they are taught the principle of giving back and giving others the same opportunity that they have been given.
Services offered by the Tomorrow Trust
Holiday school programme:
South Africa has an alarming number of Orphaned and vulnerable learners. The Holiday Schools Programme currently manages a total of 1 300 learners that fall into that category. The Holiday Schools Programme covers all financial costs per students. The Tomorrow Trust strives for greater impact amongst our learners and believes in creating opportunities to build and strengthen ways in order to see the full impact and sustainability – we have a teacher development programme that works hand in hand with the Holiday school programmes for optimal academic results.
- a. Holiday school Programme (Junior and Senior) and Saturday school programme
The Holiday Schools Programme currently supports learners in grades R-Grade 6 and Grade 10, 11 and 12 during the school holidays. The aim of this programme is to bridge the gap within the national curriculum that is taught within the classrooms during the school holiday periods (April, June, July & September). We assist and provide the holistic academic support as well as life skills to ensure these learners receive the core concepts to progress to the next grade in a successful manner. Due to the alarming need of education within South Africa and the failure to deliver well educated, academic learners, the Holiday School Programme aids to bridge the gap of education ensuring learners receive the additional academic support they would need to pass Grade 12 successfully. With the foundation being laid earlier we build academic and personal growth in order for them to receive better grade 12 pass marks which will enable them to move onto post secondary education.
To further enhance the educational support we have a Saturday school programme that runs adjacent to the Holiday school programme. This programme is a more concentrated and aimed to target learners who go beyond the expectations despite their family situations and background. This programme is for Grade 10, 11 and 12 fine tunes learners in their academic support in order for them to pass Grade 12 and make them eligible candidates to enter tertiary education.
Whilst learners attending the holiday school programme gain meaningful input and a lasting impact on their grades can be seen, we have implemented a Saturday school programme that aids learners that show further dedication and proactivity in taking their education to the next level and are currently excelling within their schools. The Saturday school programme offers these learners access to subjects that are currently showing low national levels of performance. Thus aiding in improving the Maths Pure, English, Science, Biology marks. To date we have 40 learners within Grade 10 and 11 within the Saturday schools that have access to private school facilities, food and educators of the highest standards.
Our foundation phase programme Grade R-6 is the underpinning for the grades to come and equips the child with many life skills and academic skills. Within the Junior Holiday school programme we place a huge amount of emphases on the holistic and academic developmental stages of the orphaned and vulnerable child. During the Holiday period, learners are bussed into highly esteemed school and are taught by highly qualified teachers. In the Junior Holiday School Programme we concentrate greatly on Literacy and Numeracy and basic life skills that these learners don’t have due to their dire backgrounds.
Curriculum and Monitoring and Evaluation:
The Tomorrow Trust has developed a Junior Curriculum for all current Grades we have within the programme. The curriculum is aligned with the National Educational Department and covers work that has been taught within the schools that the OVC child attends during term. We focus significantly on “learning through fun” and ensure life skills can be adopted within the work done during the Holiday school Programme.
The Learning Themes that are concentrated on are as follows:
April Holiday school Programme- Theme: Health and Safely
This theme concentrates on the well being and safely of the learner.
June/July Holiday school Programme- Theme: The Environment and Recycling
So often you will find that these learners don’t understand and know how to recycle or to look after our earth- we ensure that simple tasks are done in order to preserve the world that to this learners live in. With Recycling we show learners how to use waste to create items that they could possibly sell, introducing entrepreneurship skills into the theme.
September Holiday school Programme- Theme- The Wonderful World of Books
With this theme we enforce reading and literacy to the learners and get them motivated and excited about reading
December- Christmas Party
Due to these learners being Orphaned and Vulnerable, so often they don’t have the opportunity to celebrate the festive season or have the luxury of receiving a Christmas gift. This party we celebrate the season of giving as well as to celebrate the year we had with such special learners,
With the curriculum based on “Learning through fun” we find that the learners comprehend and receive a better understanding of the work. As well as the holistic life skills they learn during the Holiday school programme aids them in becoming a well rounded individual.
At the end of every Holiday school programme, learners are assessed on the fun work they have done in order to establish an impact as well as to track the progress of each individual learner. With this assessment we can establish where the learners are on an educational level as well as pick up learners who have physical problems i.e. battling with eye site. Should we come across problems with the learner, we feedback the information to the care organisation that in turns cares and ensures the learner problem is solved.
Literacy and Numeracy
Within the Holiday school Programme we focus on Literacy and Numeracy. We believe building and strengthening the gap in areas where learners have difficulty will result to improved Grade 12 pass marks. In South Africa, township school learners are taught in their vernacular language until Grade 4 where English is introduced as an additional language from this point on. The problem is that English is not taught to the learners by first language speakers and often the situation arises where it is taught in a vernacular by the teacher and also very little spoken English is practiced. The Tomorrow Trust Holiday School programme bridges the gap in education and aids Junior learners to familiarize themselves with the English language. This is important as once these learners reach Grade 12 they are enable to write there Grade 12 examination that is set in English and enable them to access Post secondary institutions with operate in an English medium.
The Holiday School Programme and its umbrella programmes such as the Saturday school programme, all work and support each other in order to make the individual learners cope with the academic work needed to be learnt and ensure full impact is seen within the pass mark of each learner.
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Teacher Development Programme
South African township teachers are faced with many factors that contribute to dire lack of successful teaching of the national curriculum. These teachers face large numbers of learners within classrooms, a lack of resources; language barriers and a lack of different methodologies that would assist them in providing learners with a substantial pass rate. Within the Holiday school programme, we have implemented a teacher development programme that invites teachers from participating schools to attend and participate during the Holiday school programme. This programme aids Township teachers with access to different methodologies, techniques and ideas that they can take back into their classrooms where more learners will benefit. The Township teachers are teamed up with the Tomorrow Trust teachers within the Holiday School Programme for a mutual skills transfer. The Tomorrow Trust teachers adopt an understanding of the day to day lives of the OVC learners as well as aid with the language barrier. Despite the classroom skills transfer that we have in the Holiday school programme, each township will receive a manual for the year as well as be inviting to interactive workshops during the year.
The Interactive Workshops:
Studies have showed that teacher request and require more skills training on the challenges they are faced with within their schools. The Tomorrow Trust Teacher Development programme includes 6 comprehensive interactive workshops during the year that will contribute to gaining new knowledge and ideas around teaching. This programme is aligned to the National curriculum standards. This workshop will allow township teachers to voice and ask freely for advice options on different methodologies and techniques from the experienced co coordinator.
Manuals and focus topics:
On arrival each participating teacher will receive a manual that will allow them to take notes and use as reference along the work they have been adopted. The main focus areas that we feel township teachers need focus on is not mainly the curriculum but the way they deal within the classroom. We wish to equip skills that will aid the teacher teach more effectively and contribute to the molding of the individual not only the mass that attend within the classroom.
These Interactive workshops and manuals will focus on the following:
*Notes on how to teach effectively,
* Stress management (dealing with large classes),
*Holistic virtues to incorporate within the classroom,
* How to teach Literacy and Numeracy effectively
*How to utilise limited resources to teach
* How to gain the most impact out of the interactive workshop
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Description of the Post Secondary Programme
The Post Secondary Department is centered on tertiary educational development. We follow a holistic approach which is not only based on funding but also providing educational and psychosocial support to our students. In order to get quality education; our students need additional variables to address their holistic needs (food, transport, life skills).
Overview of Post Secondary
With education as the tool of the work of the Tomorrow Trust, the post secondary (PS) programme is focused on ensuring that our beneficiaries (OVCs) receive the best post secondary education possible in a field that they are passionate about and aligned to. This sphere of the Tomorrow Trust includes all aspects of post secondary education such as university, college, apprenticeships and learnership qualifications. The Trust is not limited to university students and takes on children who are interested in a variety of careers in all sectors, such as academics, trades, sports and the arts.
Each student taken on by the Trust is provided with a food and transport allowance. This allowance is essential to a student who is living in adverse situations often without the basic amounts for food and transport. Depravation of these necessities is not conducive to studying and excelling at their chosen field. Participation in workshops and fun days on a monthly basis is encouraged and required. During these workshops and fun days, activities are arranged that will further assist the students in becoming a holistic and passionate adult. These activities include team building, self awareness, self mastery, critical thinking and psychological workshops, movies, lunches, computer courses etc. All workshops are facilitated by professionals in their fields of expertise.
Academic & Psychosocial Support
The Post Secondary Department works on two levels; namely the academic support and psychosocial support. These systems work in an intertwined and interchangeable manner, thus enabling an interactive and holistic approach to assisting our students. The breakdown of each system is discussed as follows:
Academic Support
Our academic support system is aimed at ensuring our students get all the academic assistance they require to get through their selected course. Several systems are put in place to ensure our students are assisted and encouraged. These systems are tutorial, mentorship and academic skills development programmes.
Psychosocial Support
- We have a registered counselor/psychologist as part of the post secondary team, who works very closely with the academic support co-coordinator as well as the students. Psychosocial support is provided through monthly support phone calls made to every student, counseling sessions on a face-to-face level are organized if need be and holistic training workshops are held to assist our students with self growth and personal development.
Systems of Holistic Post Secondary Programme
The Post secondary department currently manages a total of 150 post-secondary students. With additional financial support we will be able to reach many more OVC in South Africa; not to mention the ripple effect education has on the larger community. Therefore the programme is holistic in its approach as we do not only focus on financial needs of our students but also look after their academic and psychosocial needs. The post secondary department covers all financial costs per students; please see cost breakdown below.
Impact of the Post Secondary Programme
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60% of students in Post Secondary are from our Holiday School & Saturday School Program. 100% Success Rate with 0 dropout rate 87% pass rate for all post secondary students |
Some of our Current Donors:
Motseng Investments John Moshal
PWC Jupiter
BDO Sanlam Investment Cares
Shanduka Microsoft South Africa
MAC Worley Parsons
Standard Bank Plum Solutions
Private Individual Donors SSP
Victor Daitz Foundation Softline
Xtrata Pick N Pay
Sungard Makro
The Trust Glenrand MIB
Foster Wheeler Department of Social Development
Cell C Arup
Merck Levi
Allan Gray
Conclusion
The Reality of the situation is outlined in UNICEF’s Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children living in a World with HIV and AIDS.
“More than 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, the vast majority in Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS globally is expected to exceed 25 million.
More alarming is one of the conclusions drawn in the same report:
Children who have been orphaned by AIDS are frequently shunned by society, denied affection and care and left with few resources to fall back on if any. For economic and other reasons, many of these children find themselves as being the parent of the house and now have to look after younger siblings. This causes a high rate of children leaving the schooling system. This leaves them vulnerable to outside forces that may seem more attractive which leads them to drugs, crime, sex and other exploitation.
The fact is that there are wonderful people trying desperately to assist these orphans in a society wracked with stigma surrounding the disease and the children left behind as survivors. These children grow up and can be assisted until they are approx. 18 or leave school. They then have to find their own way into society and create a life for themselves and their families. This is impossible if they do not have access to education and other support systems – transport, food, clothing and accommodation. Yet they are required to fend for themselves without any assistance.
The Tomorrow Trust has been created to do just this!
WE want to give these children a hand-up not a hand-out
There are 2 major spheres in which we can begin to counteract this appalling situation – education and community. The Tomorrow Trust will do both.
Self reliance is one of the cornerstones of an empowered individual and is also the ultimate goal for all these children. Empowerment for the rest of their lives means getting the support that they need. All they need is the chance to prove themselves.
Let us take the time to understand and celebrate our children and the youth of our country. Let us truly hear them and have the vision to see them as the light of our future.
