Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela.
According to recent statistics 33 million primary school-aged children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not go to school. 18 million of these children are girls. At some point our children will become the leaders and if we fail to protect, guide, teach and inspire them, what will become of our country?
According to Rob Taylor, Director at Columba Leadership Academy, “young people and consequently our society, are at unacceptably high risk due to poor educational standards, high drop-out rates at school, massive youth unemployment, poverty and HIV/AIDS, the culmination of which has had disastrous consequences for caring family structures which provide the moral foundations for our children, and has fuelled materialism above integrity and moral decay in society.”
With this in mind Rob started the Columba Leadership Academy which provides values-based leadership programmes to empower young people in tough realities to connect with their full potential and create groups to drive sustainable social change. The Academy is an effective and innovative youth development intervention designed to give young people the strength and courage to find their own unique voice and purpose. The purpose is to activate them to become agents of positive social change for themselves, their schools and their communities.
With the help of Aon South Africa, Columba was able to extend the two year leadership course to students at Minerva High School in Alexandra, Johannesburg. The course began with a three month community engagement process, which was followed by a six-day residential academy at a game lodge. Here they explored Columba’s six values which are awareness, focus, creativity, integrity, perseverance and service. The program is concluded with eighteen months of practical leadership projects, evaluation and support.
“Besides sponsoring children to go on the leadership training with Columba, Aon also actively recruits young people from the academy for our learnerships,” says Leo Morwe, Chief Human Resources Officer Aon.
“We’re also very pleased with the domino effect that this programme has had. Although the programme could only accommodate a handful of scholars, the small group created a large snowball effect of positive change amongst other students. From the Columba programme sponsored by Aon, learners from Minerva High School felt empowered and encouraged to drive a similar mind change to pupils in surrounding areas,” adds Leo.
These students went on to create a movement called Marking Incredible Change (MIC) that is aimed at positively impacting their generation. MIC pulled together a team of Columba graduates from various schools to strengthen their drive. As a group of 25 pupils, they identified the top negative influences that they saw their peers and friends participating in and one by one, MIC tackled these issues.
They had an event in Alexandra where they invited all high school students to participate in a drive against teenage pregnancies. Just over 400 students became actively involved in MIC as a result of the event that garnered support from the Department of Education. This campaign has resulted in a significant decrease in the level of teen pregnancy in the targeted schools, Minerva and Realogile.
In April 2014 MIC launched its next major campaign called "get high on education and not drugs and alcohol", which engaged young people from four high schools in the Alexandra Community. The target was to get 2500 young people to pledge to get “high on education not drugs and alcohol” and establish a database of volunteers for future initiatives to support education in the community. The campaign was a huge success and put MIC on the map with 4000 young people engaged on the day, and many young people asking to get involved in MIC.
The MIC drive which is a direct result of Aon’s sponsorship to the Columba Leadership Programme has touched the lives of many youngsters, and will continue to do so in future.
Aon’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Programme is a deliberate, focused, coherent and progressive programme. It is well-coordinated and guided by a common policy framework which ensures that CSI is regarded as a strategic business function throughout the business, rather than on an ad-hoc basis. Besides sponsoring children to go on the leadership training with Columba 1400SA, Aon also actively recruits young people from the academy for our learnerships.
“A major drive for Aon going forward is that of education that results in the employability of the individual, or providing them with the skills and confidence to start their own businesses. One simply has to look at the crisis of unemployment and education in our country to realise that as a business we need to support and supplement initiatives to assist young people with the skills, mentorship, leadership training and fundamental business skills. Columba 1400SA provides exactly the platform needed to help young people break out of the cycle of poverty and unemployment and Aon is exceptionally proud to support this worthy initiative,” concludes Leo.
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