Foundation sponsors youth award

2007-04-12

Left to right: Willie Legodi (Head of Communication at the Youth Commission), overall winner Johannes Maremane, Marc Demmer (Palabora Foundation Director).

Last Thursday, the Palabora Foundation handed over cheques to the value of R40 000 to winners of the 2007 Limpopo Youth Commission’s Premier Awards. Out of seven categories, the Foundation chose to sponsor the Education award. The official award ceremony took place on Tuesday 27 March at Meropa Casino in Polokwane, but the Youth Commission agreed to bring the three winners to visit the Foundation and receive their cheques.

The winner of the R20 000 top prize was Molatelo Johannes Maremane (31) from Bakenberg near Mokopane. Maremane is the co-founder of a project called Mathematics, Science and Commerce Organisation (MASCO) which is run entirely by volunteers.

MASCO started in 1999 when Maremane and his co-founders were worried by failure rates at high school and decided that they could contribute to an improvement. They organise enrichment classes and tutorial programmes for high school learners, as well as offering computer classes to primary schools. They have over 100 learners registered for Saturday classes, and their educational camps are very popular, with around 300 expected at the winter camp. Despite having no funding and only charging a small administration fee, they have seen exceptional results, often taking learners from around 15% to nearly 100%.

Maremane says that the prize money will be used to buy resources and contribute to the expansion of the project. Asked to comment on the significance of the award, he simply said, “It means that people can recognise the good work that [we] are doing”.

The second prize of R13 000 went to Glenroy Rikhotso (26) who runs a lab teaching computer skills to the youth. The project is near Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt). The R7 000 third prize was won by Lawrence Monyai who teaches youth about peace, human rights and democracy.

In addition to the three winners in the Education category, the Youth Commission brought along the overall winner in the Mathematics & Science category. At only 15 years old, Jerida Maphoto was the youngest award winner. Still years from her matric, Jerida attends Khaiso High School in Seshego near Polokwane.

Jerida has clearly aimed high from an early age. She has already represented South Africa internationally for her work in maths and science, recently winning second prize in a competition that gave her the once-in-a-lifetime chance to tour Japan. She also won a computer, which she donated to her school and uses to teach others computer literacy and office software. She has also been very involved in organising the Expo for Young Scientists, and has helped students with ideas for their expo projects.

Her plans for the future include studying for a degree in Communication Science before going to work for an embassy. She says she is fascinated by international relations. In the shorter term, the Youth Commission prize money is going to help her in her goal to bring computer training to her community, not just her school. Her advice to youngsters who want to succeed is, “Bear in mind that science is not difficult; science is fun!”

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