Education is, as Nelson Mandela said, “the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Madiba would no doubt give The Rainbow Academy, Zip Zap Circus and other NGOs in the Cape Town Central City an “A” for assisting disadvantaged learners.
Create the rainbow
You’ve finished matric but can’t find a job or afford to study further. What do you do now? This is a place many youths from less privileged communities in the Western Cape have found themselves.
Enter The Rainbow Academy, a non-profit school of performing arts and business. It runs a one- to two-year training and work programme for people aged 17 to 25. Explains director Denay Willie: “Our programme provides qualifications and work experience for talented, unemployed matriculants in the gap between high school and tertiary education that enables them to pursue higher education or work in our industry.”
The success rate is high: one third of the school’s graduates have gone onto university, a third are currently employed or have opened their own business, and a third are now employed at The Rainbow Academy itself.
Denay says The Rainbow Academy decided on the Central City as a base because the staff wanted to be a part of the positive change happening in Cape Town. “Our work in youth employment, education and social upliftment forms an integral part of building our city’s economy and society and also promotes our cultural diversity in arts, culture, music and heritage in the spirit of Ubuntu,” she says.