Thanda Village is a non-profit involved in rural initiatives within the Umzumbe Municipality of the Ugu district.
The CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Science Centre, Candice Potgieter, says this was an exciting opportunity to join forces with a fellow NGO and to reach out to the province’s children from disadvantaged backgrounds. She praised the workshop's potential to help the learners improve their marks in critical disciplines such as science and mathematics.
“We believe that this is a significant opportunity to assist fellow non-profit organisation such as Thanda,” says Potgieter. “We welcome this opportunity to reach out to deep rural communities with our message of science, education and awareness. Our mission is to inculcate the importance of education in learners, educators and the general public using funded learning projects, curriculum based resources and interactive exhibitions.”
The support provided to Thanda by the KwaZulu-Natal Science Centre outreach team included a chemistry capacity building programme amongst other educational workshops and activities. “Facilitator’s were shown the interactive side of chemistry via practical workshops and activities that they will be able to replicate with their learners,” Potgieter explains.
During this initiative The KwaZulu-Natal Science Centre team also engaged with the 460 learners from the surrounding community through two curriculum relevant programmes – Earth and Beyond which focused on astronomy and Matter and Material which focused on molecular chemistry. All participants were then treated to a signature KwaZulu-Natal Science Centre science show.
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