Helping Youth in South Africa Get Access to Higher Education

One year ago Sigma Technology, Star for Life, and Mmemezi High School celebrated the launch of a long-term partnership in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The company’s ambition was to help Mmemezi students follow their dreams and get access to a better future. This spring we have given five scholarships to school graduates to support their higher studies. 

Nomfundo Mafuleka is one of the students who got the scholarship. His dream was to pursue education and career in the field of information and communication. This year he started at the University of Zululand, Communication Science department. With this qualification, Nomfundo can become a journalist, a proponent in social change debate, or a professional in public relations.

Nomfundo wrote to us:

“My parents couldn’t afford to pay for my registration fee, therefore I am very happy that I got scholarship and my dream came true. I'm almost at the finish line now, so it's my battle to win or lose. Thank you, Sigma, for your support.”

To receive the scholarship, the students had to submit their application letters, final grades, and personal data. We were impressed by their dreams and motivation for higher studies. One more student is Nosipho Wendy Mathenjwa, who is 18 years old. Her dream is to improve the quality of water in her home community and develop a healthier ecosystem. Now she is trying to realize it while studying hydrology in the University of Zululand.

There are still many things to do to help scholars reach their dreams. Unfortunately, there is a small percentage of students who want to become graduates. Therefore, together with school and Star for Life, we organized Matrix camp.

Pursuing the goal to motivate more learners to follow their dreams, we also supported two more events in KwaZulu-Natal, SA. This was a motivational conference for 12 graders, where they listened to and met Department of Education representatives and prominent role models who were born in the area and also studied at Mmemezi High School. We hope that those activities will increase the amount of applications for higher studies next year!

“Hearing that our scholarship winners feel motivated about the higher studies gives us a belief that we are on the right way to the sustainable future. We believe that social responsibility is essential for every company that has ambition to become successful. At Sigma Technology we have 500 employees representing 25 different nationalities. Together we work hard on creating better tomorrow through active engagement of all colleagues,” says Carl Vikingsson, CEO at Sigma Technology Group. “Our employees act as ambassadors for social projects, our managers cooperate with universities to improve technical education and training, whilst we as a company support non-profit organizations, and Star for Life is the biggest of them.”

Learn how Sigma Technology supports sustainable future at http://sigmatechnology.se/star-life/

For more information, please contact:

Nataly Duyko

PR & Communications Manager at Sigma Technology

nataly.duyko@sigmatechnology.se

+46 725 194 048