About 80 school learners from eight primary and secondary schools in the Western Cape assembled together on Saturday February 24 for the Students’ Christian Organisation (SCO) School’s Opening Function held at the Zola Business School in Bongweni, Khayelistha.
This served as a platform for spiritual guidance, training and development into seeing pupils involved in SCO school movements becoming leaders of a better tomorrow in their respective schools and our broader society. Speaking directly to the vision of SCO which seeks to “build students into communities of disciples transformed by Jesus Christ, impacting the school, the university, the church and society for the glory of God” — this meeting was also attended by 16 educators in the province and 15 university students equally sharing and driving the vision of day.
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“Each student present was challenged with the task to adopt at least one school per SCO branch operating in a higher institution” says Khayalethu “Casta” Zatu, the newly-employed SCO schools facilitator in the Western Cape. Zatu believes that university students have a vital role to play as mentors to school learners and that this can be attained by ensuring that university-based SCO branches work directly with an adopted SCO school group.
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Facilitating governance training and a discussion of key-leadership traits, Xoliswa Gcwadi, the former SCO school’s national director prepared learners with knowledge in being academically sound while also caring for people in their school and community. This was reinforced with a practical teaching by Pastor Mpumi Ntetha who connected a biblical perspective to stewardship at an early age.
“It melted my heart to see young school kids who are passionate for God” says Sphokazi Mbatha, an attendee on the day.
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“The event went well” says Mzwandile Shabangu, chairperson of SCO’s Western Cape provincial executive committee. “We were equipped to show creativity in communities and exhibit the body of Christ through an act of outreach” he adds. Shabangu further finds that, by embodying an ambitious spirit, the youth brought a great sense of hope to the work of the organisation and the community at large.
The school’s opening function followed a day of scriptural engagement on Wednesday February 21 in Mossel Bay and will be followed by a school’s leadership training day on Saturday March 10 at Manyano High School, with the aim of personally training pupils into service as young representatives of the Christian faith.
The next SCO event will be held at CPUT Cape Town Campus in Zonnebloem on Friday March 9 from 5.30 to 8.30pm and will be a combination of SCO higher institution branches based at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the Tertiary School of Business Administration (Tsiba). For more information visit www.scowesterncape.org.za, call (021) 685 0942 or follow SCO on social media @scowesterncape and facebook.com/scowesterncape1.
