:: 05.06.10 ::
© Canon Collins Trust
Last updated: 19 January 2012
education for southern africa
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About Us
Canon Collins Trust was born out of protest, but from its beginnings in 1981 the Trust also defined itself as part of a better future. Our purpose was not only to ‘remove some abuse’, but also to ‘develop some good’. The original deed of the Trust defined our objectives as the provision of scholarships, the assistance of refugees and political prisoners, the promotion of research and the dissemination of knowledge gained.
In the early days of the Trust our beneficiaries were largely exiles. Our cause was education and our principal method was scholarships, but a pamphlet from 1984 lists the building of the JZ Moyo School in Zimbabwe and the provision of literacy packs for Namibian women as some of our achievements. The scholarships provided by the Trust enabled those forced into exile by the apartheid system to pursue higher education opportunities in Britain. After 1994 the Trust changed in two significant ways. We began to support more people to study in South Africa, and we began to support students from all of southern Africa.
Thirty years on the Trust continues to believe that education is emancipatory for individuals and transformative for societies. In the words of Graça Machel, “Education can mean the difference between a life of grinding poverty and the potential for a full and secure one”. It can also mean the difference between a country with the leadership and skills to grow and a country trapped under the weight of its history.
Our vision is of a southern Africa whose people have the freedom and capabilities to shape their own future. Our mission is to create opportunities for people to develop their full potential through education and serve as agents of positive change in their countries.
DR MAANO RAMUTSINDELA
Canon Collins Scholar 1996-99
PhD Geography, Royal Holloway
Lecturer, University of Cape Town, and Chair of Canon Collins Trust South Africa
“Canon Collins Trust has been at the forefront of supporting education in southern Africa as a tool for liberation and development. Using the University of Cape Town as my academic base, I have developed my understanding of the region, its peoples, natural and human environments, and the challenges they face.”
