POLOKWANE – The motivational drive, founded in 2017, started operating on a rather small scale as it was funded by Kwenisto himself. The SMD’s are done throughout the year and have till thus far visited more than a 120 schools within the province.
The School Motivational Drive is run by three individuals, Kwenisto, Gaddaffi the Poet and Edgar Rathelele.
Their current hashtag, #SMD #ReBUSYskaReFounela which loosely translates to ‘we are busy don’t call us’ emphasises their vision on improving the matric pass rate and their vision of positively giving hope to the hopeless. Their accompanying mission is to play a positive role in education as the current issues in education is something that they view as a societal issue. “We can achieve this by doing camps, school visits, one-on-one sessions, mentoring and talking to the learners. We plan on playing a positive role in education, motivating young people, giving hope to the hopeless, encouraging learners to pursue their talents, showing our support to the teachers and the general staff at the school, encouraging young people to lead a positive and healthy lifestyle, teaching them discipline and life ethics,” Kwenisto explained.
As the motivational drive was able to reach more than a 120 schools, they are now planning on increasing their reach by aiming for a 150 schools. “We choose schools by checking their last three years matric results, we also get invited by these schools and we sometimes target the schools that we know have potential to do well, and schools which were doing well. In most cases we also target areas which are poverty-stricken,” he explained.
SMD is now in need of funding and assistance in order for them to reach their set goals.
The divisions in which they need assistance include:
– Transportation costs.
– Refreshments.
– Mentor apparel for 10 individuals.
– Branding needs (banners, lanyards, pens, t-shirts, motivational message booklets, uniform).
– PA system.
– Operational costs.
– Learner hampers.
– Speakers.
– Project management costs.
– Social media.
– Media training, liaison and public speaking assistance.
