Posted: November, 2008
Sometimes all the correct building blocks of education are in place - the students, the staff, their tools and the curriculum. But is this enough, when the building blocks of the actual school are less than intact? A school building is not merely a structure of four walls; rather it contributes directly to the learning process itself. It can either uplift, creating a soulful environment conducive to learning, or it can hinder this process, no matter how enthusiastic the pupils and teachers are. Until very recently, this was the case at Nomfihlela Primary School, located in the impoverished KwaXimba district of KwaZulu- Natal.
But on the 13th October 2008, the sun shone brightly over KwaXimba, also known as the Valley of A Thousand Hills, in celebration of the newly refurbished and renovated Nomfihlela Primary School. This “extreme makeover” was made possible by the efforts and commitment of the Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF) in partnership with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. Over the past 18-months, the school has undergone a complete renovation of the existing infrastructure (and seen new classrooms built), to meet with the simple learning environment standards it was previously lacking.
To commemorate this special project and its success, Nomfihlela Primary School was delighted to welcome Swedish sports legend and founder of STEF, Sven Tumba, the Durban Mayor Obed Mlaba, Inkosi Mlaba and members of the media to its Grand Opening Celebration.
After noteworthy speeches delivered by the distinguished guests, the pupils treated everyone to a show of their amazing soccer skills and agility. The enthusiastic soccer teams, proudly dressed in their new soccer gear sponsored by AstraZeneca and the Dreamfields Project, participated in fast-paced matches, giving their small dusty pitch a workout it had never seen before. The next exciting event on the day’s line up, was the handing out of 100 Supersport “Let’s Play A Million” soccer balls to every student at the school. For the guests present it was a truly humbling experience to look at a sea of smiling faces, knowing that for most of the children, that soccer ball may well be the biggest gift they have ever received. In seeing their obvious gratitude and joy, it was clear that a torch of hope had been lit in the hearts of the Nomfihlela Primary School pupils that day. STEF has once again, made a profound difference to education and sport at Nomfihlela Primary School.
Posted: October, 2008
“Soccer is a team game, and teams build better schools.”
– Dreamfields Project
The Sven Tumba Educational Fund’s (STEF) goal of developing literacy, as well as health and life skills through sport, was given further impetus this month when on 13 October 2008, in partnership with the Dreamfields Project and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, the pupils from five primary schools in the KwaXimba district were outfitted in new soccer kits. The junior soccer players were presented with the gear as part of the celebrations staged to mark the Nomfihlela Primary School refurbishments and its official re-opening.
Dreamfields bags, containing a complete soccer kit of soccer balls, soccer boots and kit, including numbered shirts, shorts and socks were distributed to the eager young soccer stars. As part of the day’s commemorative activities, pupils from the five different schools participated in a series of back-to-back soccer matches – the results of which contributed to their rankings in the final round of their local soccer tournament.
What was once an unused dusty patch was awash with colour, as the young boys and girls played their hearts out, donned head to toe in their brand new uniforms. The excitement and build up to the tournament match was clearly etched onto the smiling faces of the eager players that day.
In an impoverished community like KwaXimba, where life is centered around survival, the day’s games where a welcome reprieve from the harsh realities that surround these children on a daily basis. This was a day of hope, of fun and an opportunity for the young students to be carefree.
For everyone present, it was a truly humbling experience to watch these young pupils play, in the start of what the sponsors hope will be a long and fruitful relationship between the Dreamfields Project, STEF and the community of KwaXimba.
Posted: August, 2008
Andreas Karlsson, member of the jury for the very popular Swedish television series IDOL 2008, has written “All I need is you” the theme song for Sven Tumba Education Fund. Andreas has created music for many world famous artists. In the past he has also written two of the winner songs for the American Idol.
Posted: August, 2008
STEF’s main focus is to bring literacy and numeracy to vulnerable children throughout the world by promoting education through sport as the catalyst for lasting change. In the month of August 2008, numeracy took centre stage at Nomfihlela with Maths Centre for Professional Teachers (MCPT) working hard with the teachers to ensure that the kids at Nomfihlela can count. Mathematics remains a key challenge to most schools in South Africa but with the help of the MCPT, the children at Nomfihlela are finding out that it can be as easy as 1, 2, 3. Teachers at Nomfihlela receive training from Maths Centre for Professional Teachers (MCPT) and are monitored on weekly basis. This process allows STEF to track progress on its numeracy element. Results from the assessments indicate that there is some learner progression in this skill, but there is still a long way to go. Thanks to STEF, the six hundred and seventy-five children at Nomfihlela are receiving a head start, one that will ensure lasting change in their numeracy skills.
Posted: August, 2008
Sport For Education participated in the SAS MASTERS European Tour event at Arlanda Stad in Sweden.
SAS MASTERS is the largest annual sport event in Scandinavia.
Sport For Education informed spectators and companies during the four day event about the organization, achievements and goals.
The event was a success for the organization as many new and valuable contacts where established.
Posted: July, 2008
The annual celebrity golf event, TUMBA MIX, was held on June 9th 2008. The event took place at the beautiful Ullna golf course, located just outside Stockholm city. A course designed by Mr. Sven Tumba in 1981. The TUMBA MIX included many of the biggest stars in Sweden. Peter Forsberg, Ingemar Stenmark, Börje Salming to name a few of the sport stars who participated in the event. The event focused on the Sven Tumba Education Fund and money was raised to the fund.
Posted: June, 2008
STEF’s main focus is to bring literacy and numeracy to vulnerable children throughout the world by promoting education through sport as the catalyst for lasting change.
The sports programme, which is a five-aside football programme involves an inter-schools league. The first games begin in July 2008 when learners return from their winter break. The league will be run on a round-robin basis and will ensure that each school plays the other 4 schools at least twice to reach the final. Good luck to all the schools and may the best team succeed.
This league will be run and managed by sports committee made up of representatives of each of the 5-schools that the STEF is currently supporting. Their responsibility will be to ensure that the games are played as scheduled and to keep the children participating in sport. An exciting time again for Kwa-Ximba and the schools involved in the STEF Sport for Education Programme.
Attached is the fixtures table and the scores will be updated as the games are played.
Posted: May, 2008
STEF's main focus is to bring literacy and numeracy to vulnerable children
throughout the world by promoting education through sport as the catalyst
for lasting change.
The sports programme, which is a five-aside football programme involves an
inter-schools league. The first games begin in July 2008 when learners
return from their winter break. The league will be run on a round-robin
basis and will ensure that each school plays the other 4 schools at least
twice to reach the final. Good luck to all the schools and may the best
team succeed.
This league will be run and managed by sports committee made up of
representatives of each of the 5-schools that the STEF is currently
supporting. Their responsibility will be to ensure that the games are
played as scheduled and to keep the children participating in sport. An
exciting time again for Kwa-Ximba and the schools involved in the STEF Sport
for Education Programme.
Posted: April, 2008
Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF) has implemented a sport program called “Soccer for Success”. The program, which involves 4000 children and 100 teachers in 5 schools (in KwaXimba) combine reading and writing skills with soccer. The goal is to set up a soccer league including all participating schools.
Posted: April, 2008
We proudly announce Gary Player as an International Ambassador of Golf for the Sport for Education project. Gary Player is a legend in his own time. The most successful international golfer of all time, Player has achieved the kind of worldwide acclaim reserved for only a handful of sporting greats. He is, quite simply, world class. Gary Player is renowned as much for his dedication to the principles of excellence as he is for his golfing accomplishments. “I could not be any happier. It is fantastic feeling to know that a true gentleman like Mr. Player has accepted to become International Ambassador of Golf ,” said Sven Tumba, Founder of Sven Tumba Education Fund.
Posted: April, 2008
STEF will to start 13 more programs in the rural district of KwaXimba, located 50 km outside Durban, South Africa. The start of new programs will be based on the continuous success of the inaugural programs launched in 2007. STEF is currently involved in 5 schools in the KwaXimba district. The new programs are planned to be launched in January 2009.
Posted: April, 2008
Swedish Optical organization KlarSynt expands its support to the Sven Tumba Education Fund. The 143 optical store locations included in the KlarSynt organization, will during 2008 donate money based on their sales and also encourage consumers to help Sven Tumba Education Fund. Also at least four licensed optometrists will travel to South Africa with the objective to perform eye examinations and supply free eyeglasses to children with poor eye sight at schools included in the Sven Tumba Education Fund projects. KlarSynt, a partner to Sven Tumba Education Fund, is very positive to development of projects started by the Fund in South Africa. We are very impressed by the great improvements made in the first school. We see our support as part of our social responsibility and also as goodwill among our members and partners, comments Anders Åhrlin, CEO KlarSynt.
Posted: August, 2007
Naming of STEF Soccer Development Programmes:
AstraZeneca Launches Competition to Find a Winner!
The Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF) philosophy encourages the participation of all children in sport – in fact it’s one of the four fundamental pillars that make up the STEF model. This month AstraZeneca and STEF announced that five-aside-soccer has been selected as the key sport to be implemented in STEF beneficiary schools. A naming game has been launched with the confirmation of this selection, and both AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Nomfihlela Primary School have been roped into coming up with a South African equivalent for FUTSAL. The name that scores the most points with the judges will be adopted as the official name for soccer development programmes for all STEF beneficiary schools.
Speaking at the launch of the “What’s in Name?” competition, AstraZeneca transformation manager and custodian of the local STEF project, Buhle Moyo, said that the sporting programme is more than just exercise and will be used to identify and develop soccer talent in young children, encourage participation of all children in sport and it’s expected to help leverage other elements of the model, specifically literacy. “It is also hoped that the success of the programme will see it being scaled-up and taken to other schools within the in Kwa-Ximba district in Natal, via an inter-schools league.”
For strategic reasons that support the STEF objectives, FUTSAL has been selected over traditional soccer. This because the players enjoy more ball contact per game; it encourages better ball control; can improve motor ability, perception, and problem solving abilities; it’s more fun and the children can score more goals; and it gives the players a sense of belonging to and identifying with a team. All of which are important factors in the well-rounded development of children.
September sees the roll-out of training programmes aimed at 15 teachers at Nomfihlela Primary and four other schools in the area. They will all be exposed to soccer coaching, and refereeing, as well as training in administration of the game. It is hoped that this will mark the kick-off of the intra-school leagues within the five schools, with January pegged for the launch of the inter-schools league.
The STEF is a combination remedy to create lasting change in the lives of vulnerable children and uses a model structured around four fundamental pillars to ensure significant impact on a sustained basis. These four pillars include support in literacy and numeracy; sport; capacity building; and infrastructure upgrades. To date, progress has been made in developing several of these pillars, with baseline literacy and numeracy assessments completed, a new classroom opened and the pillar now receiving heightened attention through the roll-out of five-aside-soccer: sports development.
Posted: June, 2007
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TheSven Tumba Education Fund completes the building of the first classroom Ralph Ellison is reported to have said that education is all a matter of building bridges. But for the pupils enrolled at Nomfihlela Primary School in Kwa-Ximba, education is a matter of being afforded a brighter future, idyllically housed within a newly built classroom. |
It is estimated that some 10 000 to 12 000 classrooms are required to meet the current education needs in KwaZulu-Natal. Government is unable to address this burgeoning requirement within the budgetary constraints and as a result, many communities without local donors are finding themselves in dire crisis.
Situated approximately 60km north of Durban, Nomfihlela Primary School marks the inaugural implementation of a partnership between Swedish sports icon, Sven Tumba and pharmaceutical AstraZeneca, the Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF), launched at the International Conference Centre in Durban, November 2006.
Aside from building classrooms to house eager learners, AstraZeneca and the STEF’s primary aim is to develop a student support model for children in the foundation stage of schooling, namely grades 0-3. The partnership’s vision is to adapt an approach that will develop literacy, basic numeracy, skills and the participation in sport to re-enforce discipline and build character.
The 72 square metre classroom took four-weeks to complete and is situated 30-metres from the main entrance to the school. As per the explicit wishes of the fund, the project was undertaken by Mr LG Mhlongo, a contracted builder from PROJECT BUILD, a Natal Schools Project Trust. Established in 1995 as an offshoot of the Urban Foundation’s school building division, it is PROJECT BUILD’S aims to improve the pupil / classroom ratio, thereby creating improved conditions for teaching staff and children alike.
Assisted by his team of four, as well as two members of the community, it was the STEF’s intension to not only provide much needed employment for the six individuals, but also to transfer a number of valuable building skills to the two members of the community. These included bricklaying, concrete mixing, roofing, plastering and painting.
Posted: May, 2007
READ tests levels prowess of students enrolled in the first project of the Sven Tumba Education Fund
The READ Educational Trust recently evaluated the literacy capabilities of 60 pupils at Nomfihlela Primary School in Kwa-Ximba, Natal, with challenging results. The average literacy percentage posted was 22 percent among the first three grades of the school. The assessments are the first steps in the Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF) programme being rolled out at the school.
The STEF aims to develop a student support model for children in the foundation stage of schooling, namely grades 0-3. Its vision is to adapt an approach that will develop literacy, basic numeracy, skills and the participation in sport to re-enforce discipline and build character.
Says Nombulelo Sikhosana, READ co-ordinator president, “We randomly selected students from grades one to three and sat with each child over a three-day period to conduct our one-on-one literacy test. For grade one and two, each test was performed twice, once in the child’s home language, IsiZulu and the second test was conducted in English. The grade three tests were only in English and included one reading comprehension (where the answers were either choosing the correct answer or writing their own sentence); spelling and word lists.”
As to be expected, the English literacy rates were the poorest across all three grades, the lowest being that of the grade ones at a mere six percent. Quite surprisingly, the highest IsiZulu literacy results were garnered from the grade two pupils at a staggering 90 percent. Numeracy tests will follow later this year, with the same literacy tests to be completed with the same pupil base within the following 12-months in order to gauge the reading progress of the group.
Posted: July, 2006
The STEF research team is currently evaluating the location and group selection for the STEF Pilot Program. Considerations are focused on the following areas:
The STEF pilot is scheduled to begin in January 2007 with the start of the school year. Preparations are well under way and Sven Tumba (STEF Founder) and Per Larsson are scheduled for an initial visit to South Africa during the first week of September to ascertain the progress to date in preparation for commencement of the pilot next year. The official inauguration is scheduled for November 19, 2006 at the International Convention Center in Durban, South Africa. Representatives from many of STEF's associating organizations and partners will attend the ceremony.
Posted: July, 2006
The Sven Tumba Education Fund has been launched and is registered in Florida, USA. The first pilot program is ready for implementation and will be introduced in November 2006 in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. The model will then be completed and ready for implementation in time for the start of the new school year. More information will follow.
Posted: July, 2006
This web site is under construction and information is continuously being added.
The Sven Tumba Education Fund will captivate and retain the attention of children through participation in sports, while teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and developing and nurturing qualities of respect and responsibility. To this end the organization will work directly with local, regional and international organizations and governments.
© 2007 Sven Tumba Education Fund. All rights reserved.