Charity begins at home for Orlando Pirates
Pupils from Orlando and surrounding areas are benefiting from the club’s learning centre.
Established in 1959, the Orlando Stadium carries a lot of history as one of the landmarks that Soweto prides itself with.
The fact that the stadium is home to one of the biggest teams in the country has brought about positive change to the lives of young people in the area.
This positive change comes in the form of the Orlando Pirates Learning Centre.
The learning centre was opened in October 2012 by the chairman of the club Dr Irvin Khoza and the Department of Basic Education.
It is on a mission to bridge the digital gap while contributing to the education of young people in the area.
The centre makes this contribution by offering free courses to pupils who attend schools located around the stadium. It is fitted with state of the art facilities and hightech computers donated by Acer.
In Orlando, 14 schools have stabilised a working relation with the centre and pupils from those schools are reaping the benefits.
Schools have to identify pupils who need extra help with subjects such as maths, English and computer and send them to the centre for extra lessons.
Pupils who display an interest in IT are identified by their schools and enrolled in the centre as well so that they get all the help they may require.
The centre works on a first come first serve basis. The centre offers pupils courses which take up to ten weeks.
Besides these courses and school holiday programmes, the centre assist pupils with their homework and projects every day after school.
The Orlando Pirates Learning Centre is not limited to those still in school but unemployed youth who have finished school are benefiting as well.
They are offered free IT courses which are provided by the centre in partnership with Microsoft and Cisco.
Upon completing this course which takes one year, they are awarded with accredited certificates which enable them to study further or get employment.
“This is an initiative by Orlando Pirates to give back and uplift the community,” said Jude Capel who is the manager at the centre.
As a qualified teacher, Capel is the one who does the teaching full time at the centre. He is assisted by other teachers from different schools in the area who are volunteering their time.
“We also have something which has been quite successful. It’s a programme where we allow students who have graduated here to come back and help with the teaching,” said Capel.
