Learning Festival: Learning to hope

The beginning of spring has seen colourful stalls popping up in front of the Main Building on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), along with seasonal flowers. And they all speak of hope. The stalls belong to trainers and learners from across the province who joined hands to learn from one another at the 6^th annual Learning Festival.

The festival is a combined effort by the UFS, NGOs and government departments, and is all about equipping people with skills that can help them to earn an income and so improve their quality of life.

Exchanging skills

“There has to be an exchange if you have skilled, privileged, employed people on the one hand, and poor, unemployed, disadvantaged people on the other, ” says UFS Director of Community Engagement, Bishop Billyboy Ramahlele.

He explains that the festival started six years ago as a conference focusing on job creation that the university hosted with Bloem Shelter, an NPO caring for homeless people. What started as a talkshop, has matured into a fully-fledged workshop in the truest sense. This year about 500 different skills-training opportunities are on offer, ranging from hairdressing, carpentry and sewing, to workshops on mindfulness, 3D printing and first aid training. Bishop Ramahlele emphasises that the imparting of knowledge is not a one-way flow. Workshop presenters also learn a lot from participants. “People empower one another with knowledge and in so doing we build better communities.”

Festival organisers explain that this year’s theme, From Zero to Hero, is more than a slogan; it’s a reality. Some workshop attendees that started with absolutely no skills three years ago are now running successful businesses.

Generating income

“It’s impossible to create a musician in a two-hour session,” says Grand Cloete, a music teacher at the Creare Christian Training Centre in Bloemfontein that runs one of the music workshops. “We teach them a few basic principles of music and give them a chance to experiment on different instruments. The main idea is to give people exposure to a variety of things, so they can make a calculated choice about what they want to pursue.”

One of Cloete’s participants is 27-year-old Christopher Minnie, who had to leave school before finishing matric, because he had to start earning an income to help support his family. He recently discovered he had a talent for singing, and wants to use the workshop to learn how to read music. “I’ve been doing odd jobs up to now, not earning very much,” says Minnie. “I want to go deeper into music. I believe I have enough passion to eventually make a living out of it.”

Finding hope

“This is so much more than just teaching people a way to earn money,” says Izak Botes from Bloem Shelter. “When people don’t work, they also lose their sense of belonging and they start doubting their worth. This festival is about teaching them to believe in themselves again.”

Source University of the Free State