If you are someone who believes we are all responsible for the future we dream of and will roll

up your sleeves, take on tasks that need doing, laugh and appreciate the sense of accomplishment, progress and companionship that comes from working with like minded people and changing something that you believe in deeply, we would love to hear from you. We call ourselves Elders, but are not hung up on age. However, we care deeply about South Africa and education. We believe every child is a future citizen and needs care, play and learning to fully take up that responsibility one day. As Elders we have diverse experience, skills, wisdom, time and caring to put into the big effort needed to transform our schools into centres of learning and transformation for the future. Your life experience, career competencies big heart and companionship are worth gold to us. We intend making the WIFM* return for you truly meaningful. How? In short, the role of E4E is to initiate, convene and co-ordinate the contributions of Elders who are moved to join a national effort to improve schools within which every South African child has the opportunity to enjoy quality. We believe the problem is systemic and requires systemic solutions based on partnerships between the state, the private sector and civil society. Improving our schools is an urgent national priority. Our work complements the work of all stakeholders who share this intent. There are two critical elements to our plan. One - build up a databank of Elder profiles. Two- identify schools that urgently need help. Then we match these two elements by defining effective projects and putting together Elder teams that will work with the school management, staff and students to repair whats broken, build whats needed and leave a trail of change, excellence, friendship and hope. We will not be teaching, designing or tampering with the curriculum, time in class or any other business that is done by the departments of education. We need elders who can work in any of these fields: Finance, IT, Legal, Operations, Media Liaison, Stakeholder Management, Fundraising, Specialists, or at these levels: Conveners for Teams in Provinces, Districts, or as: Schools recruiter, Schools liaison, Administration. We will need Elders to take on any or all of these roles: to take responsibility for Elder services to a school; to conduct needs analysis, to source & agree roles with Elders in team, collaborate with school convener & school; build school community; ensure sustainability. We will meet each other in an orientation workshop and learn what we are likely to encounter in the educational environment and what would be best practice in building trust and problem solving. Our values of , , and will govern our approach in schools.

*WIFM: You will live to purpose, meet great people and be challenged to share your life learning.

We could design sports facilities and project manage building or maintaining them, design a safety policy for the school, train skills for collecting outstanding school fees or the computing systems needed to do this efficiently. You may be the one to coach the new School Governing Body or coach maths or classical music appreciation after school. Perhaps you are a long time cricket fan and could coach and develop a team for the school. I could help Moms and Dads to supervise homework, or to bring in the people who are good at establishing food gardens or teach needlework to the matric girls and Mums before their matric dance. You are good at creative self-discipline and he has the leadership skills to survive gang pressure and develop a love of the wilderness with grade 10 learners. Who knows what we could do when we put our grey heads together, especially when we carry a vision for what could be and can show great patience and determination that has been learned over years in diverse roles and conditions? Just imagine the inspirational stories we will tell?