Museum outing made possible by Rotary grant

SCHOOL learners from Phila Primary School in Umlazi, were treated to an outing to the Phansi Museum in Glenwood on Friday as part of the Phansi Museum School Programme.

Of the 97 learners, only one had visited a museum before. The outing was made possible through sponsorship by the Rotary Club of Brunswick Coastal in Topsham, Maine.

John Dennan, a member of the Rotary club and member of the Board of Executives of Phansi Museum, helped make the outing a reality.

“I have been friends with Paul Mikula from the museum for 50 years. He told me about this programme at the museum and I thought I could help by getting funding for the programme through my Rotary club.”

“Children these days are overwhelmed by western culture, but at the museum they can see how incredible the Zulu culture is,” he said.

According to director of the museum, Sharon Crampton, the grant from the Rotary club assisted in transporting learners from rural schools in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal to the Phansi Museum in Durban and to other educational institutions such as The Durban Music School and the BAT Centre.

“Research indicates that more than 60 per cent of rural learners have never set foot in a museum. As a result, a valuable resource of cultural education has become inaccessible to the majority of learners in our country and we feel an imperative need to rectify this situation by giving learners access to one of the most spectacular collections of South Africa’s cultural heritage at the Phansi Museum,” she said.

Sharon said in addition to covering the transport, the funds are used for the training of volunteers in art and culture tourism and education, educational activities for the learners and something to eat and drink.

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