EDUCATION
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
- Nelson Mandela
COFA believes that providing students with the opportunity to attend quality Christian schools provides them with the educational and spiritual tools to reach their full potential and become effective and compassionate leaders of their families, communities, and nation. Such private Christian educational institutions either do not exist in low-income communities or require significant structural improvement. The inability of indigent families to afford private tuition at these schools adds an additional challenge.
COFA has supported schools in Mhluzi, South Africa and Kamwenge, Uganda. Most of COFA’s current work is supporting St. Peter Christian College, in Mhluzi, Middelburg, in Mpumalanga province South Africa.
St. Peter Christian College
More than a decade ago, Pastor Mandla Khumalo and St. Peter Confessional Lutheran Church opened a preschool in Mhluzi, Middelburg, in Mpumalanga province South Africa. Mhluzi is the formerly segregated residential neighborhood outside of Middelburg. Parents soon asked for a place where their children could continue their Christian education. Pastor Khumalo and the church met that need in 2011 with the opening of St. Peter Christian College for lower grade students. With the help of COFA it has steadily added new classrooms for its students as they progressed through their education, eventually becoming a K-12 school with facilities capable of teaching 600 students.
Good to Great Initiative
While St. Peter Christian College has provided students with a good Christian education, the leaders of that school have realized that merely offering a “good” education does not equip students with the tools they need to reach their full potential. Instead, the school must provide them with a “great” education that adds cultural, sports and spiritual programs to a modern curriculum that includes a high-quality STEM education.
The Good to Great initiative envisions investing more than $5 million in facilities and staff over a five-year period.
Some of the components of the plan have already been put into place.
The school has added a youth pastor to the staff. Pastor Given ensures that Christian values are made a part of the entire school experience.
The school has added a music director, who has initiated choir and dance programs, inspiring students to develop their talents and participate in local competitions.
The school has added an enhanced reading program.
The school has added a gardening program.
The robotics program has begun, with a partnership with TechnoAfrika Academy.
The school has expanded its sports program.
Click here for a more detailed information and five year budget for the Good to Great initiative.
An important partner in the Good to Great initiative is Empowering Change. The staff at the school has been trained to use that organization’s Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), and are now taking advantage of this tool to maximize their impact on students’ educational experience.
Click the image to see how St. Peter is using EOS to enhance its Good to Great initiative.
Good to Great Programs
Christ Centered
Click the image to see how St. Peter’s has integrated Christian faith into the educational experience.
Robotics
Click the image to see students creating programable robots as part of its partnership with TechnoAfrica.
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Reading
Click the image to see a video featuring St. Peter’s new reading program.
Music
Click the image to see a video featuring St. Peter’s new music program.
Gardening
Click the image to see a video of St. Peter’s new gardening (and reading) program.
Technology
Click the image to watch how St. Peter is using smart board technology to enhance the educational experience.
Sports
St. Peter offers a wide range of sports for its students, allowing them to learn leaderships skills, teamwork, sportsmanship, perserverence and discipline.
Student Scholarship Campaign
Many families are unable to afford tuition at Bethel Pre-School and St. Peter Christian College, so COFA has been funding scholarship for needy students. Recognizing the need to provide stable funding for scholarships, COFA has initiated a campaign to obtain $250,000 in donations annually over the next five years, with $50,000 designated to annual costs of scholarships and $200,000 toward an endowment for St. Peter Christian College scholarships. Earnings from that endowment can be used to provide scholarships indefinitely.
COFA is also supporting some of the students that graduated from St. Peter and have enrolled in colleges or universities in the United States.
Use the links below to see our Scholarship Page to see details about the Scholarship Program and profiles of the inspiring students that have benefitted from the generosity of COFA’s supporters.
Bethel Preparatory School
Bethel Preparatory School
Bethel Preparatory School is next door to St. Peter Lutheran Church in Mhluzi, South Africa. Approximately 300 children, from newborns up through preschool learn basic educational and interpersonal skills in a Christian setting, as well as receiving two meals a day.
As one of COFA’s partner organizations, it has helped upgrade its facilities and has provided scholarships for students’ tuition.