A centre based on the Shine model, in the Eastern Cape.

Ben Tillotson, a young US  student, of seventeen years old, joined us last week for lunch to tell us about his experiences in Mboyti, near Lusikiksiki, in the Eastern Cape. Ben worked with us at the Observatory Shine Centre last year during June, July and August 2009, and this year he took himself, six cases of books that he had organised to be donated my friends, school and family from the states, and headed off to a remote place up on the Eastern Cape, about 50 km from Coffee Bay. Ben's mission was to start a literacy centre based on the Shine model, an 'Outreach' Shine centre. 

Ben, far right of the picture

The student body with Mboyti beach in the background... 

The centre today.... 

The 'bookshelves' were donated by the hotel: actually an old drainer for dishes. 

The centre, called Gugulethu, in Mboyti

The books he schlepped from the states!

The room Ben was allocated

Ben was given a space, called Gugulethu, and not much else. With the help of Tuffy Kirrsten, the owner of the local Mboyti Lodge Hotel, he set about making big changes. Furniture, a paint job and cleaning was required, and slowly the centre started to take shape. Ben was equipped by Shine with a manual, and two training DVD's, ( which got lost in the post and sent back to Cape Town eight weeks later!) and his knowledge and enthusiasm from his time at Shine last year.... he did the NIKE thing, and ' JUST DID IT.'  I am so impressed with Ben, and the work he has done in Mboyti is nothing short of wonderful. I am so moved, and very touched that he was able to, with very little guidance, set up a small literacy centre in the Gugulethu building near the hotel. What Ben has done is very impressive, and I believe that any young person who can come to a foreign country, and make an impact on the lives of so many children, is very special indeed. I feel so proud that he has been part of our organisation, and that has taken away an ethos and a method of working to such a remote and rural area to help make a difference. Ben will go far.