Eduvator is a new crowd-funding platform for educational needs

A new crowd-funding platform is hoping to help a little school in the township of Philippi realise the big dreams of its principal and her pupils.
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The school was started to keep children safe after three children were raped in the area.
The school was started to keep children safe after three children were raped in the area.
The children at Three Sisters Educare rely on the generosity of all parents for their daily meals.
The children at Three Sisters Educare rely on the generosity of all parents for their daily meals.
The women of Three Sisters feed the children with vegetables that they have planted and use the garden for teaching children how to grow their own vegetables.
The women of Three Sisters feed the children with vegetables that they have planted and use the garden for teaching children how to grow their own vegetables.
The Educare teaches 70 children in two storage containers. Eduvator hopes to raise R1 million to provide them with proper classrooms.
Children are taught using any resources they can and rely on the community for help and donations of stationery and magazines.
Children are taught using any resources they can and rely on the community for help and donations of stationery and magazines.
Principal and founder of Three Sisters Educare, Zanele Mgoqi talks passionately about the children in her care.
Principal and founder of Three Sisters Educare, Zanele Mgoqi talks passionately about the children in her care.
The number of children in Mgoqi's care has grown from 10 to 70 in just eight years.
The children's daily schedule is handwritten and hangs on the wall in the classroom.
The children's daily schedule is handwritten and hangs on the wall in the classroom.
Eduvator is using crowd funding to build classrooms for Three Sisters Educare in Philippi.
Eduvator is using crowd funding to build classrooms for Three Sisters Educare in Philippi.
Children of all ages rely on the generosity and care of Zanele Mgoqi who started the school to give children a foundation of education and keep them safe from the streets of Philippi.
Children of all ages rely on the generosity and care of Zanele Mgoqi who started the school to give children a foundation of education and keep them safe from the streets of Philippi.
70 children are taught in two containers with basic ablution facilities.
70 children are taught in two containers with basic ablution facilities.
Principal of Three Sisters Educare holds up photos of the tiny shack where she started the school with 10 children.
Principal of Three Sisters Educare holds up photos of the tiny shack where she started the school with 10 children.
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Eduvator is a new crowd-funding platform for educational needs. It is the brainchild of Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Fellows Jacqui Watson, Mbali Sikakana and Batandwa Alperstein, and was founded on the principal that anyone can contribute to solving the infrastructural issues that affect the education sector in South Africa. The project identifies schools that are desperately in need of resources and through a network of NGOs it uses multimedia storytelling to motivate and unite citizens in solving problems that hinder the children’s education, particularly in the early learning phase.

Three Sisters Educare in Philippi, Cape Town, is Eduvator’s pilot project. They hope to raise R1 million in two R500 000 phases.

Three Sisters Educare, a school for impoverished children in Phillipi, was set up by Zanele Mguqi. She started the school with nothing but a love of children, passion for education and a heart bigger than her bank balance. It stands amongst the shacks and dusty playgrounds of Philippi, an informal settlement in Cape Town that is home to approximately 191 000 people.

“Before the Educare it was dangerous for the kids”, says Mguqi. She describes an extremely painful time for the community when three children from the area were raped, and two were murdered.

Mguqi has always felt a passionate protection over the children of Philippi. “Someone who is hurting the kids, is hurting me” she says fiercely.

Eduvator’s campaign would enable the building of two double classroom blocks along with toilet and kitchen facilities for Three Sisters. This amount of money seems like a lot to ask. But Eduvator offers an easier fund-raising strategy: they ask five thousand people to donate only R100 each. It’s less than the cost of a single restaurant meal, but all together it could pay for a school.

In the mean time, Mguqi dreams of unlocking each of her students’ potential.

“If we get a swimming pool, we would be glad. Maybe one of them is a swimmer, we don’t know. There could be sailor, we don’t know. When you teach children you have to think of their careers. They can be pilots, they can be teachers, and they could be a president. They get a better future from their roots, and the Educare is their roots”.