Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha, Dr Vuyani Booi, said they had hosted their annual Winter School Camp at the Nelson Mandela Museum Youth and Heritage Centre in Qunu, last week.
The five-day Winter School Camp took place from July 24 to 28.
“The 22 learners that were participating are from the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga provinces.
“Since its inception in 2007, Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage Centre has hosted over a thousand learners coming from nine provinces of South Africa,” he said.
Booi added that owing to the COVID-19 pandemic they stopped this programme, but decided to resume last year.
According to him, as an institution they have a mandate to inform, educate, and capacitate the current generation, for the betterment of their lives.
“As an institution, we monitor the progress of every learner participating in our activities. We have seen a number of our participants and pioneers fulfilling their academic ambitions and further contributing to social development programmes dedicated to school-going and out-of-school youth.
“These pioneers have been moulded through a joint relationship with schools.”
He added that this camp helps learners to understand their role in society as they grow up, and also to know that they should take care of themselves.
Booi said they also wanted them to know the value of the late Nelson Mandela, on the other side they have an opportunity to groom the camp attendees.
According to him, even though these learners are from different provinces and speak different languages, they all come from under one roof, which is South Africa.
“Learners who participate are from Grades 10, 11 and 12. We have a competition that we do where we give them a topic particularly about the Human Rights, and speaking about the responsibilities they have even though they have rights.
“We then have adjudicators who are the ones who look for the best participants in all these provinces. This is how we do our competition,” said Booi.
