Awards 2008 : Category Finalists
Arts, Culture and Communications • Business Entrepreneurs • Education • Health • Science & Technology • Social Welfare • Sport
Education
Dr Caroline Leaf is the author of a number of national and international best-selling books on the work she has done as an academic who has researched the human brain with particular emphasis on unlocking the vast untapped potential of the brain.
She has linked scientific principles of the brain to emotional and intellectual issues in a simple and practical way and strives to free people from their mental constraints and help them recognise their gift from within.
Her unique research and its application has impacted on the lives of hundreds of thousands of learners and educators throughout South Africa and abroad. It has taught them skills to learn by explaining how the brain learns and develops memory, how information moves in and out of the brain and how to maximize on the process.
Dr Leaf’s science of the brain based learning methods have served as an example of how dedication and perseverance can change perceptions of limited ability and a lack of hope which have affected thousands of learners in South Africa and other parts of the world.
The impact is evident in her scientific research statistics as well as the testimonials from thousands who have used her system. Her organisation was as an example instrumental in influencing the Grade 12 pass rate to move from 20% to 80% in 30 000 learners in 2002 in the Gauteng region.
Not only have learners had benefit from Dr Leaf’s work but she made a huge impact in the public arena with her books on the emotions and thought life of people. She is now hosting seminars worldwide helping people to understand their brain and how to learn effectively as well as how to deal with anxiety, stress, toxic thoughts, depression and various debilitating disorders. Dr Leaf is interviewed frequently on the subject by leading national and international television and radio shows as well as influential publications.
She is a prolific writer and has already had two international bestsellers:” Switch On Your Brain” first published by Tafelberg publishers and “Who Switched Off My Brain” published by her own publishing house: Switch On Your Brain Publishers which sold over 100 000 copies in a few months.
It is her plan to release a further five books and Dvd productions over the next year to be released internationally and she is also currently setting up a neuroscience research laboratory and offices in the United States of America to continue her research to enable her to improve the processes she has developed.
Dr Leaf completed her PhD with distinction, over 2½ years, in March 1997. She then went on to the development of a number of learning programmes using findings from her Master’s and PhD degree amongst them the MMA® course which has been presented to more than 80 000 pupils and adults (educators and corporate) originally under the name of Mind Dynamics and currently runs under the name of The Switch on your Brain Organisation (PTY) ltd.
- A short profile on Dr Leaf will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 31 July 2008.
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Mrs Phuti Ragophala is the school principal of Pula-Madibogo Primary in Limpopo Province and is an engaging teacher who has rallied her impoverished community to better themselves with the little means they have.
She has taught them that there is no limit to the individual’s dream and to just do it even if it takes learning to speak French in a remote area where Sepedi is the language all understands and where English and the other nine official languages is broken.
Ms Ragophala has been a teacher for the past 21 years and has put the teaching taking place at Pula-Madibogo Primary on the national map. She has grown this school from a small and forsaken place to a school that has changed its own destiny educating children who has found hope to realise their dreams for future success.
Since heading this school it has been Ms Ragophala’s vision to first of all through her teaching ensure that the learners are taught well so that they leave the school well equipped with the necessary skills to achieve in life and to be masters of their own destiny. She wanted them to stand proud and one of the first things she did was to have the National Flag installed in their school yard and lobbied for the same at neighboring schools.
Ms Ragophala firstly employed committed teachers who have worked very hard to lift teaching standards. She and her team focused on computer literacy, the ability to work independently, interpersonal and communication skills and always good planning.
Then Ms Ragophala started a drive to get lottery money allocation and find sponsors to better the electronic equipment at the school and assist impoverished learners with basic needs such as school uniforms and stationary.
She created a culture of being hungry for success amongst her learners and has succeeded to get placement for some of the impoverished girls at her school to attend the Oprah Winfrey School of Academy. Her message to them has been no matter who you are, where you come from the triumph of success starts within.
Ms Ragophala made the sky her limit and in teaching her pupils how to conquer new cultures she started French language classes under the flag of the University of Limpopo for 30 learners. Her argument to them was that surely they would like to be able to speak to the thousands of visitors who would be speaking French when they visit the country for the 2010 World Cup.
Then Ms Ragophala looked at award schemes and found opportunities for learners to visit international institutions. One of the most recent results of this drive is that a learner represented Limpopo Province this year at the People to People leadership forum in Washington DC in America.
Furthermore she reached out to take her teaching outside of the school premises by adopting prisoners at Kutama Security Maximum Prison and assist them with further studies while in prison. To her the passion to study has no boundaries as long as one is determined to change his or her life through education.
She knew that to maintain this education that it must be done in an environment that is conducive and has therefore tackled the problem of poverty in the area head-on helping parents to equip them better and apply the natural resources available to them.
Together they have started a poultry farming project to assist impoverished parents who cannot pay school fees. They have also started a greening project with vegetables, fruit trees and herbs which support these needy parents and learners and a nearby orphanage home.
- A short profile on Mrs Ragophala will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 30 July 2008.
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Mrs Roslyn Narain-Mohan is a teacher at the New West Secondary School in Durban who can truly be seen as the Mother Theresa of her community where she has looked at the scourge of virtually every social injustice that have affected them and have launched campaign after campaign to make a difference.
The community of Newlands West where she lives and teaches is really a microcosm of the broader South African community where HIV/Aids, crime, racial conflict, poverty, age and individual suffering has ravished social interaction and existence.
Ms Narain-Mohan took a stand and as passionate teacher decided to not sit back and see these social injustices continue to destroy her community. She took up the cause and decided that she will use her skills as an educator to teach her community how to engage and help seek answers for those social problems haunting her people and the people of South Africa.
Since she started her campaign she has made a tangible difference in the lives of many hundreds of individuals across the cultural spectrum. Ms Narain-Mohan is a role model in her community who firmly believes that she needs to provide a holistic education to her pupils, inclusive of academic, social, spiritual and moral values to prepare them for the real world.
In her daily teaching and actions she displays respect for her pupils and she encourages them to focus on the positive and seek solutions for the problems they and their community face daily. Solutions for her does not only mean reaching out, it also means further education, understanding and identification of the real need and support that would help those being helped to help themselves in the long-term.
When she tackled the fight against HIV/Aids she first obtained a qualification in HIV/Aids care and counseling and now provides voluntary counseling to her pupils and people in her community. She voluntarily and for no financial gain, writes an HIV/Aids education column in the community Newspaper “The Rising Sun”.
She broadened this with a HIV/Aids campaign at school in which the pupils of her school and those of another 30 schools in the area, community stakeholders, health professionals and educators got together for an educational week which concluded with a visit to the Siyaphila Mcords Centre and the Dream Centre, homes for HIV infected people where pupils came face to face with the realities of HIV/Aids.
This all enabled pupils to understand the consequences of sex without protection. The end result of this campaign was the formulation of a HIV/Aids Policy for the school in collaboration with pupils, parents, members of the School Governing Body, the teachers and the principal of New West Secondary. It was important to ensure that the lives of people who are infected and or affected by the disease would not be hindered by stigma and discrimination.
Another area she actively campaign is to promote democracy in culture. Under the banner of the Phoenix Inanda Coalition she has helped to unite the black community of Inanda and the Indian community of Phoenix through the medium of sports and cultural activities. She married the concepts for love and understanding in the two cultures, Satyagraha and Ubuntu, in her teachings.
Crime and its devastating consequences she took to the youth to campaign. A youth forum was established to empower the youth to be informed about crime, to take a stand against it and to ensure that their knowledge of crime in their community will prevent them from becoming crime statistics.
And so the list of social campaigns she has propelled just goes on and on with the benefit going to those who have been affected by crime, violence, abuse, poverty, age and ill health. It was a single individual, a pupil in her class who attempted suicide because he felt he had no fatherly love that was the trigger for her to become an angle of hope in her community and an example to the rest of the country of how one person can mobilise a whole community into action.
- A short profile on Mrs Narain-Mohan will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 28 July 2008.
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