The inclusive Lavender Hill approach to sustainability
The community in Lavender Hill on the Cape Flats has rallied around Levana Primary School, a fledgling Khanya partner. Lavender Hill, a sprawling housing project to which residents were forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act, bears the scourge of the displaced. Unemployment, poverty, drug addiction and gangsterism contribute to the social dynamics in the area that surrounds Levana Primary.
In support of Levana's efforts to bridge the digital divide, a church group that often uses the school premises has raised funds to install a 24-hour satellite Internet connection for Levana. In a community where schools are the target of burglaries and vandalism, the parent community at Levana has entered into dialogue with the gangsters in the area. The school will therefore by agreement be a no-go zone for members of their clubs.
Education through technology in the case of Levana appears to be headed for the sustainability that the Khanya Project encourages at all its partner schools. When the school, religious and parent communities join hands in ownership and accountability for education through technology, surely more than the digital divide can be bridged at other historically disadvantaged school like Levana
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