On Monday we arrived for chapel service at Inanda Seminary for Girls. The story at Inanda is a real story of hope in South Africa. In the 1830's one of the leading missionaries to South Africa was Danial Lindley. He started a seminary for African Boys and then after a number of years his wife, Sarah, insisted on founding a seminary for girls. It was new to insit that African girls needed a high school education. Heri initial concern may have been that young women be suitably educated to serve as minister's wives, but the school has continued to offer educational opportunities to African girls.
Today it has 330 girls and they poured into the chapel and started singing in Zulu on Monday morning. Spontaneously they filled that hall with this glorious sound. The chaplain of the school is a UCC minister names Rev. Susan Valcourt Cuper. She is a missionary appointed by Global Ministries and supported by the church contributions to OCWM (Our Church's Wider Mission). She and her husband, Rev. Scott Cuper, another minister who serves a local church, live with their children on the campus. Susan leads chapel services at the beginning of each day.
Inanda Seminary was almost closed five years ago. The buildings were in disrepair and the UCC could no longer afford to support it. But the alums, called "old girls" are African women who have risen to prominence in their churches and communities. Flo Mandlala, the woman I visited who started the AIDS Care Center in Lamontville, is an active alum of Inanda. She and others were determined to keep the school open. So they took the case to Nelson Mandela, who prevailed upon the major paper industry executives at SAPY. This industry has poured 6 million Rands into the school to begin renovating the buildings. That initial contribution was followed by twice as much again to bring the campus back.
Now it is a great example of a school that is giving African girls a chance to transform their lives through education. I met the headmistress and had breakfast at the home of the chaplain. When it was time for the picture the girls were literally jumping into the photo when I explained that it would go on a website and people in the US would see it. (I thought one girl was really going to hurt herself in her enthusiasm.)
I am experiencing some technical difficulting on this posting, and cannot eliminate the duplicat picture. But if you want to see more and better pictures of this school go to their website - www.inanda.org
Susan
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