Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’

Monday, I began working with my International Public Service Project (IPSP)organization, the South African Environmental and Education Project (SAEP). For those of you reading not from the Clinton School, the IPSP is one of the three field projects we do to earn our degree. The first, the practicum, is a small group project during the first year. The IPSP is an individual project done with an international organization, usually abroad, between the first two years. The final, independent project is the capstone. The capstone is the culminating project that can be done anywhere, on any topic of importance to the student. So this is the second of my three field projects for my masters’ degree.

SEAP is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded by Norton Tennille in 1994. As Norton tells the story, he came to Cape Town, thought it the most beautiful place in the world, thought he’d work here five or so years, and has been here ever since. He had been working in Washington DC as an environmental attorney and sought to educate children in Cape Town of the importance of the environment. Once he got into the schools, he found many pressing issues, thus the development of the gap year program, tutoring in the high schools, and more recently the Early Childhood Development program.

I am working on the ECD side of the organization with Jane (Sanford and Ryan are working more closely with Norton and the other programs, so I’ll let them describe those). The ECD program began in 2003, when one of the gap year interns asked Jane if she could help his mother do some fundraising for her crèche (preschool). Once Jane began to talk with her, she found the issues that the crèche was dealing with to be pervasive. Shortly thereafter, Jane found out that this particular lady had joined a local forum of crèches that were coming together to work together. Initially, Jane thought that this forum would be able to provide the help that her lady was working for, only to find that the other crèches were facing the same problems. Thus began the SAEP ECD program. The progress that these crèches have been able to make in five short years is remarkable, although there is still a tremendous way to go.

My project is an evaluation of both the crèches and where they stand, as well as the impact that SAEP has been able to have on their progress. The difficulty is mostly in the data collection. As Jane described it, when the principals think that the government is coming to inspect them, then everything is wonderful, but if they think that you are a fundraiser, then everything is bad and they need more money. Not a terribly unusual situation, but the result is that the picture is very muddled. Right now, I’m working on developing observable data criteria that we can use to correlate to our objectives. I will also do brief interview/ surveys and read a whole lot of reports. It’s a good thing my glasses are up to date!

SAEP has two sets of offices. Norton and the high school programs are in Rondebauch (sp?) and Jane and the ECD program are in Rosebank. We aren’t far apart at all, but it does mean that I don’t see the boys all day. The ECD office is actually Norton and Jane’s home, so it’s very cozy. I’ve found this tea that is superb, but I can barely say the name much less spell it. At any rate, it looks like this is going to be a marvelously productive and pleasant summer!

Always,

Sarah