During a recent gathering hosted by the University of South Africa, PASCAL Co-Director Paul Crawford (Northern Illinois University) had the opportunity to visit the Soweto YMCA. Soweto (an abbreviation for South Western Townships) is an urban area incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and is remembered as the locus of student-led anti-Apartheid protests in 1976. Soweto also gave birth to Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. For these and many other reason, Soweto has a "sense of place" where social capital and learning are of the essence. In fact, the 1976 uprising was prompted by the desire of young people to learn in a manner that corresponded to their place-based language.

The key purpose of the visit to the Soweto YMCA was to explore the potential for piloting a youth entrepreneurship education program being developed by PASCAL Associates - Joanne Dempsey and Tracy Rogers.  The aims of this program are to develop economic literacy at an early age, and to inspire youngsters to form entrepreneurial ambitions that lead to new enterprises and jobs that are needed to replace those eliminated by global economic change.  

In the photo below, please meet the YCMA's General Manager, Portia Tshepe (2nd from the right), her Projects Coordinator, Lebogang Kgatitswe (far right), and Receptionist Refiloe Maruping (2nd from the left), and Paul Crawford.  You will be hearing more about this exciting PASCAL-linked initiative in the coming months.