I Learn to Live – Ngifundela Ukuphila

About us

I Learn to Live – Ngifundela Ukuphila is a non-profit organisation established in 2010 and focused on providing education opportunities to school children and youth in rural Zululand.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between school leavers in disadvantaged areas, tertiary education institutions and centres of learning, by providing the knowledge and resources which are available to us as an organisation. We believe every South African child should be given the opportunity to learn in order to become equipped so that they may sustain themselves and their families in the future, rather than relying on others to do so.

We aim to do this in the following ways:
• To provide a much needed resource for school leavers and young adults whereby relevant information on tertiary education institutions will be made available;
• To create a working relationship with the relevant tertiary institutions and programmes in the area in order to give school leavers and young adults information on how to access the institutions and apply for funding and bursaries;
• To provide life and soft skills training and development to school leavers and young adults so that they have an increased chance of gaining a placement in a tertiary institution;
• To enable and empower school leavers and young adults to find job placements in a field which they have studied and have expressed an interest in;
• To create a sense of dignity and self-reliance in themselves and their families.

Our work
• I Learn to Live currently works with school children and predominantly unemployed youth. Our main focus for both groups is providing additional education opportunities, in the form of programmes created by organisations with a love of learning. Maths, science, coding, designing, coding – all fun, interactive and exciting when taught well!
• I Learn to Live is not a teaching centre, or a school. Our intention is to provide the children in our community with additional education input that has the potential to fill the gap created by a lack of qualified teachers. The programmes we administer were created by non-profit organisations specialising in specific fields of STEM, second language teaching, as well as problem solving.
• Youth who participate in our programmes, are asked to volunteer in the afternoons at the various after care programmes we run, for school children. This provides the youth with work experience, to add to their CVs. We are currently working on our 2018 programme, which will include: Leadership training; Entrepreneurial training (for those with an express interest in starting a small business)

Ashling McCarthy is the Founder and Chairwomen of I Learn to Live – Ngifundela Ukuphila.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.