After selling her house in the suburb of Beacon Bay and moving in to the township of Duncan Village, Laurette Mkati, 69, has her eyes set on opening an educational centre in the community as part of her mission to transform the youth.
Mkati, who hails from Scotland, moved to SA in 1984 as part of the “Kingdom Community Deliverance and Transformation” project.
“I was fairly newly born-again and I was asking God about what should I should do with my life. Someone brought me to Duncan Village and as someone from overseas, this thing of apartheid was a shock to me,” she said.
She said after going to the community for prayer for many years, she finally moved to the township with the aim to transform the youth.
“We are planning on opening an education project in 2019 next year where we will assist schools with teaching maths, sciences, accounting and English – not just the matrics, but starting from grade 8. We have sat down and discussed ways to go about this, now we are just looking for a location,” she said.
Mkati said the project had been visiting school camps of the in Kusile Comprehensive School to pray with the grade 12 pupils learners who are writing their exams.
“Living in Duncan Village, it is very difficult to change the lifestyles and mindsets of people. That is why we focus are focusing on the children. , to change their mindsets. Every morning, we go to the matric camp consistently to pray for the them, every morning and we go again in the evening to find out how it went.
“We know there’s not much we can do at this time, but we encourage them to believe in themselves and to believe in God,” she said.
Kusile Comprehensive School deputy principal Sivuyile Sishuba said they could see a change in their pupils learners with the project’s intervention in the school.
“They are of great help because they help the pupils learners develop holistically. Although we teach them, sometimes they need help spiritually and through prayer.” , we see a change in pur learners with that intervention,” he said.
“People do ask if I’m not scared of the crime in the township, but I say there is much crime in Beacon Bay where there is so much more to steal. This is my home and I have no other home. I’m here to stay, at least for as long as God wants me to,” she said.
