Editor’s Note: Ernie Halter is one of our MC Artist Sponsors who traveled to Cape Town, South Africa in May/June 2009 to visit several Mocha Club projects, including the Job Creation center, Learn To Earn. Here are some of Ernie’s thoughts on the experience..
As a Mocha Club Artist Sponsor, I take a little time to talk about Mocha Club and the Job Creation project in Africa nightly at my performances on tour. Recently I finally got to visit the Learn to Earn (LtE) center in Khayelitsha, South Africa near Cape Town, and I can honestly say I’m more passionate now about the project than ever.
Learn to Earn is actively addressing widespread unemployment in the area with programs that teach South Africans useful skills such as sewing, ceramics, woodworking, auto mechani
c training, word processing, and graphic design. LtE then places students in jobs or helps them open their own businesses. The program has an 80% success rate for job placement, and those who do not immediately find employment are hired at the LtE center until they do. The center is extremely busy and full of life. We saw busy classrooms hard at work, prideful people given an opportunity to provide for their families and better themselves under less than ideal circumstances.
Having been there and witnessed this firsthand now, I can see that Learn to Earn isn’t so much about charity. It’s a partnership, creating with its students and its community the most empowering gift you can give…
Hope.
[...] this summer, Ernie went on the Mocha Club trip to Capetown, South Africa to visit the Education/Job Training project he supports called Learn to [...]
Pingback by Ernie Halter & Mocha Club on Good Day Dallas! « Mocha Club Blog — August 10, 2009 @ 11:12 am