Meet EwB's library project coordinator

Education without Borders is excited to welcome Angeline Jacquin as our new library project coordinator at Fezeka Secondary in Gugulethu, South Africa.

Angeline grew up in a village of 400 people in the east of France and, craving an arts scene, moved to study literature, didactics, theatre and culture management. She calls theatre and photography her main passions, and she became involved in managing a spoken word festival in Bordeaux, where she lived for six years.

Angeline also taught French as a second language, worked in a high school and led workshops for youth in prison.

"My major concern has always been around connecting people through art and knowledge activities," she says.

At Fezeka, Angeline is tasked with creating the library, with the aid of teachers and students. She is getting assistance from the Department of Education and an NGO called Equal Education.

"Angeline has done wonders in only a few weeks," says EwB co-founder Cecil Hershler. "Finally, after years, a library is emerging — and one that will be sustainable."

Angeline first encountered EwB in 2010 when she was volunteering on behalf of Arterial Network, a cultural Pan-African organization. She helped students with a theatre play at Fezeka.

"I was dazzled by these young people," she says, "by their determination and inventiveness, by their energy and capacities. I wanted to do something more for them. And, because I believe in the power of arts and knowledge, this current library project is really exciting to me. I know the potential it brings.

"I trust that we will succeed in creating new ways of working with the teachers and the learners together, by means of this library, which meets a real need at Fezeka. Access to information and forming a critical mind are the keys in the battle against social, ethnic or gender determinisms, the essential conditions for life choice and freedom."

EwB thanks all its generous supporters for making positions like Angeline's possible.

ABOUT EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS 



EwB is a Canadian non-profit foundation created in 2002. Our mandate is to foster educational opportunities and provide educational facilities in disadvantaged regions of the world. Currently, EwB’s efforts are focused on Fezeka Secondary and the surrounding community in the township of Gugulethu (pop. 400,000), on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa.

ABOUT FEZEKA SENIOR SECONDARY

Fezeka Senior Secondary exists in an education system that for years under apartheid excluded township schools. Today's students are still suffering the effects of this discrimination. Classrooms are overcrowded, resources are inadequate, and the pressures of township life, where unemployment is close to 50 per cent, are a constant weight. EwB believes that the development of knowledge and skills gives individuals more possibilities for their future and helps build communities.