2002 marks the Liberty Foundation’s 31-year involvement in social responsibility. The early work of the Liberty Foundation was strongly welfare oriented, highlighting the plight of the aged, the disabled and children in need of care. However, from 1983, this was complemented by a growing educational focus.
Today the Liberty Foundation supports education and skills training as the greatest contribution to speed up development. The Liberty Foundation also believes that including HIV/AIDS awareness in key sectors of society is imperative if development is to succeed.
“We at the Liberty Foundation understand our role clearly as one of not only of providing aid, but also in lighting the way and in developmental upliftment,” says Liberty Foundation Executive Director Hylton Appelbaum.
Since 1990, the Liberty Foundation has invested more than R320 million in social development throughout South Africa, confirming its status as one of the most important corporate social funders in civil society.
As part of its CSI efforts, the Liberty Foundation not only provides aid but also focuses on developmental upliftment. To this end, the Foundation pursues four main objectives:
To provide funding for effective educational, social developmental and charitable endeavours;
To promote individual empowerment and sustainable economic development;
To encourage community organisations to harness their skills and expertise in order to generate economic activity, create new jobs and build capacity; and
To identify strategic development opportunities and to help to make them achievable.
The Liberty Foundation runs several effective educational projects, namely:
Myeka High
Technology has enabled the development of many new and effective ways of bringing world-class education to those who would previously have been denied access.
Myeka High in rural KwaZulu Natal, is a prototype of a previously disadvantaged school that has been able, using convergent technologies, to leapfrog into the 21st century and to consequently achieve markedly improved matriculation results.
The school has, via the Internet, access to the largest library in the world. The Foundation supplied VCRs and television and made possible the provision of The Liberty Learning Channel for Grades 11 and 12.
The Liberty Learning Channel
The Liberty Learning Channel broadcasts more than 700 hours annually. Effective and free-to-air, it provides televised lessons covering the curriculum in mathematics, physical science, biology and English, for Grades 11 and 12.
The Learning Channel has contributed to the significant improvement in matriculation pass rates in the public high schools. Schools throughout the country, many of which have scheduled it into their daily routine, use the channel widely. The Liberty Learning Channel also broadcasts in 28 other African countries to over 100 million students.
Learn.co.za
Learning Channel Online is the premier on-line educational resource for high school students in South Africa. It covers the curriculum for Grades 8 to 12, employing interactive teaching methodology, and providing access to teachers on-line.
The Liberty Foundation developed down-loadable free textbooks. The materials are always up-to-date and teachers can amend or personalise textbooks. Learn.co.za is South Africa’s largest free access educational website.
“When the site went live in March 2001, we received 22 000 visitors in the first month and currently get 30 000 per month, 56,1% of whom are black and the remaining 43,49% are white. The majority of the users access the site from school and remaining users from home and community centres,” says Learning Channel Campus Sales and Marketing Manager, Gillian Cross.
“I must commend you on a brilliant site. It is most enjoyable and even for myself, a grade 12 student, it was quite informative. The site is well laid out with a clear indication where you are on the site, which is very useful. Thanks again for a very helpful site,” wrote Toni Waywell, Grade 12 student.
Newspaper supplements
The Liberty Foundation funds educational supplements in most major newspapers in South Africa. These provide access to relevant curriculum-based material for the price of a newspaper. Learners can collect weekly supplements to form a complete textbook. Some of these are:
Sunday Times Liberty ReadRight:
This project targets not only learners, but also their teachers and parents as well as focusing on outcomes based education. In 1999, ReadRight won the prestigious World Association of Newspapers’
Young Reader Prize.
The Star Liberty Matric Matters:
Many thousands of high school pupils benefit from a major weekly supplement the Liberty Foundation publishes in various newspapers nationally such as The Star, Pretoria News, Daily News and The Argus. These supplements support the matric syllabus in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, English, accountancy and geography. For some these are virtually the only textbooks they will ever own.
Sowetan, Beeld, Rapport, City Press, EP Herald, Daily Dispatch, and Die Burger:
The Liberty Foundation is sensitive to all the different segments in the country and their particular educational needs. In their efforts to reach more learners, they also fund educational supplements in these regional and national newspapers.
For more information on these initiatives, please call
(011) 408-4103, visit the Liberty Group website on www.liberty.co.za, or write to The Liberty Foundation, PO Box 10499,
Johannesburg, 2000.