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R950 000 donation from Dell Development Fund SA

  Dell Development Fund South Africa generously donated 16 Team Boards,  Data projectors with full installation valued at R750000 to Christel House South Africa.

Knowing the model of Christel House SA and the fact that our beneficiaries received a full scholarship which includes full uniform, Dell offered a further R150000 cash donation towards our children’s school uniforms. The learners and teachers of Christel House SA are truly excited about this donation as it will further develop the use information and communications technology in every day classroom activities as well as all learning areas.

Fighting poverty by creating Dreams

At the age of eight, Chadne Morkel told her mother: “I never want to struggle like you.” True to her word, she has just become 2011’s top-achieving Grade 12 at Christel House in Ottery, a school for disadvantaged children that boasts a matric pass rate that is way above the national averages. In 2011, all but one student passed unconditionally, 70.8% achieved a bachelor’s pass, and more than half the 2011 Matriculants secured bursaries or learnerships.

Hailing from Bokmakierie in Athlone, Chadne received a distinction in Afrikaans and walked away with the school’s top honour, a Christel Award. She has also been accepted for a civil engineering learnership at Sutherland Civil Engineering through the Go For Gold achiever programme, with a bursary attached depending on performance during her learnership.

Against this year’s national average pass rate of 70.2% and the bachelor’s pass rate of 24.3%, Christel House’s results are an anomaly. And yet Chadne is just one of the school’s success stories. “Every year it’s magic that’s produced,” says Board Chairperson Elspeth Donovan. “I feel proud like a mother – there is nothing to stop them now.”

Christel House’s primary goal is to combat poverty through a holistic approach: a combination of education, lifestyle management and community outreach programmes. One hundred percent of the learners’ families fall below the poverty line, but unlike many other schools offering opportunities to the children of destitute families, children are not selected according to academic merit. As long as they are learning-abled, they may apply for acceptance, with the school offering every opportunity to bring out the best in them according to their individual abilities.

Kristen Kimberley Matthews fencing coach trainee

I grew up in Manenberg, Cape Town and live with my parents and two brothers and my little sister was just born when I had started school at St. Theresa's Primary school. At the time my mother was working a full time job starting at 6H00 -17H00, my father was unemployed at the time and my oldest brother dropped out of school to help get some money into the house for us to survive.

My younger brother and I juggled going to school and looking after our baby sister. After 3 years of school, I was introduced to a man named Melvin King, the then Principal of Christel House, a school for underprivileged children. I was the perfect fit and soon learnt and achieved very well. 

At Christel House SA Mr Randall Daniels introduced me to fencing and I took to it like a duck to water. It felt like fencing was in my blood and I achieved very well in fencing competitions and also participated nationally and internationally. Today I am training to be the first African Coach in fencing in Dakar, Senegal.

I will be the first qualified fencing coach in the whole of Africa and this will be my chance to give back to others in a very big way while I will be a self sufficient young person. All this was made possible by Christel House South Africa and their wonderful teachers. Thank you so much Christel House for this great opportunity and for helping me to help others.