The Hlanganani Learning Partnership…….
……..is what happens when two people, one in Khayelitsha,Cape Town, South Africa and one in Slough, UK, take a risk……..
- One day in 1995, while attending two separate training seminars in their two separate countries, they sign up for a UK/South Africa educational twinning project, not knowing what they’re letting themselves in for
- they convince their own schools to join in
- they set up writing links between their students and teachers and get more people interested; they start a series of videoconferences to help them work more closely together
- more schools want to belong to the network
- they raise money for resources
- they visit each other and share ideas and resources for teaching and learning
- they work in each others’ schools and take students with them
- they get universities involved in research and in making the collaborative learning more rigorous
- they have lots of discussion about what an equal partnership means; sometimes there are quite serious disagreements about this but they all bash on because they have faith in it
- the students become leaders and work with creative practitioners: in theatre, film-making, music, visual art, story-telling, poetry
- the outcomes of the creative learning are published and shared as resources for further and wider learning
- they get support – no money, but plenty of support – from their local education authorities
- some organisations and individuals – The British Council, DfID, Creative Partnerships, local companies – provide funding for specific pieces of work
- they take their shared work beyond the formal educational settings into community and cultural organisations – libraries, museums, galleries, human rights organisations, refugee support groups, development education centres, HIV/AIDS support groups
- they celebrate their achievements
- by 2008 there are 18 schools, 3 universities and more than 20 organisations engaged in the partnership
- young people learning together are driving it forward
- the voluntary organisation that is The Hlanganani Learning Partnership exists to ensure that anyone who has been committed to it in spirit and in action is supported in developing their own work and having it recognised
- the projects are as diverse as the people involved in them and the contexts within which they operate; they need an identifiable centre to hold them together and to allow each one its own unique nature and role
Hlanganani…..the spirit of working together
2 Comments
Hlanganani is an African word for Unity; the name says it all that at this moment in our history when there seems to be so much intolerance among nations-there is a group of young people and educators from different walks of life who are prepared to show the world that insipte our differences unity is possible if only people are prepared to learn from others. It is only after learning from a colleague, a peer that one gets to realise that what was perceived as being different after all is no difference at all except for that we have our unique ways of doing things. And that is exactly what Hlanganani aims to do: to bring out the uniqueness in everyone which will eventually pave a way for all to learn to respect and tolerate other fellow human beings; thus forging the Unity we all want. Phambili (Forward) with Hlanganani, the world out there is awaiting on us and we have so much to offer.
I’m glad to announce that I am now also part of CHUMA (a youth development organisation) primarily aimed at working with young people especially those (however not isolating anyone who would like to join us) who had been members of Hlanganani. We understand that after leaving school there is such a confusion around fiding an organisation that’ll fully understand and fully integrate the youngsters who have just left school and are still trying to find their feet in this independent world of adulthood.
Because CHUMA understands the exact programmes that Hlanganani is involved in, we are happy to extend our hand and say come on and walk with us to sustain the work Hlanganani started off with and plough back your expertise to the very schools you are coming from. Feel free to conatact me at: +27 828391172 for further queries.