Project 02/2025 Co-funding project Dr. Hubert Jung / Wulkow Foundation supports the YOUPSA/South Africa educational projects with €3,000

The children of the after school enrichment program do enjoy our sponsorship for the educational program

The two co-sponsors, Dr. Hubert Jung, Anita Brebeck and the board members of the Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation recently traveled to the small, urban remote town of de Rust, near Oudshoorn, South Africa. The Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation has been supporting needy children and young people in the rural, poor regions of the Western Cape since 2017.

Ray Schöne and Alexis Salaman, the heads of the non-profit organization (NGO) YOUPSA - Youth Potential South Africa, are trained educators and psychologists who constantly travel to the poor regions in the Oudshoorn and Gamtoos Valley areas to give after-school tutoring to needy children and young people, do homework with them, go on excursions and provide them with psychological and educational support as they integrate into a social and Christian environment. Ray and Alexis also attach particular importance to the development of the childrens personal gifts and development.  They are often disadvantaged because they are poor, have to help with field work with their parents and siblings and often do not go to school. Some children take drugs and alcohol, which they often get from their fathers or mothers. 

Ray and Alexis have several drop-in centers and rooms made available to them by farmers or the church. We were able to visit two of these facilities, once in the De Oude Muragie (performance venue for YOUPSA for musical learning projects) and a kindergarten in Nelsriver in the Rietvalley. When the kids get home from school, they go straight to Ray and Alexis. There they are often first provided with lunch or fruit to increase their motivation and get actively involved. The entire program, in which we have already participated several times locally, is called the After School Enrichment Program.

The children learn playfully and with skill through brain teasers or they can also do crafts, paint or read together. Ray and Alexis also talk about health problems and discuss the consequences of drug and alcohol use with the children. 

Ray and Alexis attach great importance to working together. In addition to school education they also teach Christian and social values. The goal is to give the children joy in play, music and education and to give them self-esteem and to make them internally strong for social values. These children are often role models for other children and encourage them to learn to stay away from drugs and alcohol and not to become criminals.

With our on-site visit on February 18, 2025 to the Nelsrivier Bambino Creche kindergarten, Rietvally, where 13 children came together, we accompanied Ray and Alexis and gained an insight into the valuable, educational work of YOUPSA. We accompanied Ray and Alexis for a day. We also saw a brightly painted house in a slum residential area that Ray and Alexis and the children were taking part in a sponsored painting course.

During our visits and conversations with Ray and Alexis, we were able to get a lasting impression of the local challenges there and the difficulties of child labor, but also the joy of the children who do crafts, make music and learn with them.

As part of the learning lesson at the Nelsriver Bambino Crech, we were able to hand over our joint donation. In this way we sustainably support the work of Ray and Alexis with the urban children in the Rietvalley and the area around de Rust.

Special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Jung and his commitment to supporting YOUPSAs educational work.

 Nelsriver, Rietvalley, de Rust-South Africa 02/18/2025

Photos: own, Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation