The Rising Sun Foundation is a nonprofit organisation that was established two years ago by Lumka Cube and Khayakazi Tapile. While it is based in Port Elizabeth, the foundation also has a branch in East London.
“Our vision this year is to instil hope in the youth of Eastern Cape,” said co-founder Lumka Cube. “We have realised that many learners can be hindered from performing well due to not being mentally or emotionally stable, based on our different backgrounds.
“Our job is to ensure that every week, we offer them guidance in the form of talks, while also supporting them emotionally and mentally.” According to Cube, 2019 had many highlights for the foundation. “We helped matric pupils from Qaphelani High School apply for tertiary level education.
“We used our resources and internet and spent the entire Saturday at the school, assisting the pupils, most of whom have been accepted at university, which enables their dreams.
“We also successfully offered tutorials to matric students at Qaphelani every Saturday to help increase their matric pass rate.” Cube’s second highlight was the delivery of sanitary towels to a school where pupils were in need, accompanied by a motivational seminar where they shared their experiences about life with the young pupils.
“One major obstacle we have been facing is lack of funding. “We mostly use money that comes in forms of donations, and that sometimes hinders us from doing some activities to assist the youth.”
Rising Sun’s aim is continue with the #KeepGirlsInSchool campaign which they established five years ago.
“We hope to reach more than five schools this year by ensuring we get as many collections as we possibly can.
“What we aim to do differently, is to ensure that we have many companies active in the organisation, not only through monetary donations but through our events and activities which will allow the organisation to grow immensely,” Cube said.
