Yes – according to Neil Turok, chair of mathematical physics at Cambridge University and I tend to agree with him. I have lived and travelled in Africa several times. I was working in various places but the most stand out was Gods Golden Acre (GGA). An orphanage type place where local people and volunteers worked hard to provide for the children and teenagers that were there with a home and means to an education. Set in rural South Africa about 30mins from Durban, GGA supported various outreach programmes in addition to the main building, the orphanage type place. The outreach programmes supplied mainly basics (candles, stable foods, etc.), vital for the Gogo’s (Grandmother) raising the numerous generations of Grandchildren left to her after AIDS took its toll on their parents.
Within GGA there was schooling for nursery age, often taught by volunteers (mostly) from Western countries. Older children could go to local schools and receive a good education. But it often struck me that once the kids reached 18 there was very little for them to do. Some joined the staff at GGA, there is a lot of building work and maintenance going on for the young men and similarly cleaning and cooking roles for the young women to fill. And the rest?
I’m not too sure. I explain the situation as I knew it. It was a concern several years ago and I have lost contact with many who have been there since, but it struck me when reading the article on the BBC website about AIMS (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences). It is exactly what Africa and especially the young adults from GGA were missing. AIMS would take away some of the millions of dollars of aid going into African countries, if the articles calculations are correct then it would be 0.1% of the current African Aid budget. I suppose the name AIMs says it all, a suitable substitute for AID. The AIMs programme is ‘aimed’ at setting up higher education facilities (Universities!?) to enable Africa to become ‘AID’ free by producing more skilled people at a higher level relative to the western world.
The first AIM centre is set up in Cape Town and aimed at Mathematics, people are coming from all over Africa to enroll. I thought (more on topic for the blog) that an AIMS institute focusing on Biological Sciences (Ecology, Biology, Zoology, Molecular Sciences) would help to kill two Springbok with one stone. Creating environmental awareness within Africa, within African communities and at a level where meaningful research could occur. Potentially creating ideas and skills where there would have been only a few. The children of GGA being given the opportunity to fulfill their ambitions and their AIMS. Finding out about their own country and how they could discover and find ways to support their environment and people without the need (eventually) for foreign AID.
by Samuel Waldron
The Zoological Blog 