Hello everyone,

when I decided to do these monthly newsletters I had the intention to send them out at the start of every month – funny how things turn out in a manner different to expectations. At this point, we’re more on the side of they come out when they come out – beginning or end.

Over the past year I’ve become more far more engaged in the interplay between concepts of form – generating beauty and enjoyment – and function – fulfilling a purpose or need. Themes that present themselves when writing these newsletters. I want to address the purpose of giving you updates on the Foundation and its projects but also, in such a manner that the words are enveloped with ideas and beauty. Neither should overpower the other; but work in harmony and, hopefully, reach a point whereby the two, form and function, resonate off each other; resulting in an experience greater than the sum of its parts.

It is for this reason these newsletters will undergo a natural ebb and flow in timings.

I hope that we all in the foundation can move with purpose and beauty in our projects and lives; whilst also being open to the timings of life.

Alvira Updates

General

This past month we moved forwards with small, but significant, steps. Our bank account has officially been created; thanks to Jason for all the admin and scans upon rescans of documents. With a bank account open, we have completed the penultimate step in being an official NPC. The final step being: tax exemption.

Why this is so important for us is that now we can start putting moola in the bank!! Speaking of which, we received two sources of donations this month! Enough to see us forward for the next 6 or so months and buy us time to work towards additional fundraising.

After Elena met Tere Garcia Ledesma in a weekend of networking, Tere, with over 10k followers, decided to make an Instagram post of the Alvira foundation. In her story, she told everyone that a foundation – withholding the same philosophy of the schools she and many of her followers went to in Spain – is starting in South Africa – a.k.a us!. In the story she said how they have witnessed the change these schools have had in their life and so, to support us so that we (the foundation) can too give similar opportunities to South African students. Through this story, she set up a payment link whereby all donations would go directly to the foundation. Ever since then, small donations have been trickling in – amounting to a real difference! In addition to this, a huge thank you to the Lawrenson family, who after listening to Tyra tell the story and vision of the foundation, were incredibly generous in their donation.

To see people so effortlessly give us an opportunity to build the foundation is a great experience of human compassion and understanding. Thank you!

We had our picnic function this month organised by our events team. Despite it being a smaller gathering, I enjoyed being in a space in which I could connect on a more personal level with various people. Sometimes the buzz of large functions renders us deaf to the quiet whispers of peoples personalities. We played a few games, one in which I discovered a knack of flipping an oreo biscuit from my forehead into my mouth, and another where I discovered I could fit the most marshmallows in my mouth! Below are a few pictures from the picnic (I hope I have blessed everyone with their best smiles in choosing the photos, as I know those in them will all be scrutinizing them 😛 )

A small request is that moving forward, we give adequate heads up to the events team on our availability. They go through a fair amount of effort to ensure everyone is catered for and that we have a good time. Giving a reply will go a long way in ensuring their planning success!

Lastly, Elena will be vising South Africa end of July with Luchy. Luchy is from the Arenales – a network of schools in Spain who also follow the philosophy of Thomas Alvira. They will be here for two weeks to do some networking and training for the foundation. I will put more detail in a later newsletter about the Arenales schools, who Luchy is and the incredible support she has been giving us, as well as all the planned social events in those two weeks. For now, just know you will all get to say hello and give a big welcome hug back to Elena, albeit if only for a short period.

Umazisi

For most people, the Umazisi project will have been, like me, your first exposure to the Alvira foundation. Most of the time, attention and effort was devoted to the project with regular meetings, think tanks and weekly status updated. This was necessary as it gave us the momentum and excitement to carry us through the initial hurdles of doubt and confusion.

For most, that momentum probably seems completely gone, with little to none of that interaction like before. This kind of ucertainty in the progress of the project and foundation itself is completely natural. However, I can ensure everyone that the momentum in the Umazisi project and the foundation is anything but gone!

I would say, two main reasons can be attributed to an apparent external silence from the project:

1. Covid created a lot of chaos in the schools at the beginning of the year putting them in a position whereby they decided to start much later. A result of all this chaos is that we did not hear back from Jeppe girls or Greenside for a good few months. And so, we realised that it would put everyone under unnecessary pressure to push for a start in March. Now, we intend on having the project underway beginning of August With regards to the school interested in the project, Greenside high has come back to us with continued intention to look into a collaboration. Jeppe, on the other hand, have not come back yet and so, in the meantime, we will focus our efforts on getting a firm yes from Greenside High.
2. We have been generating all the content for the workshop. In this, Robyn has taken all the initial work from the think tanks and is in the process of combining and enriching the content in a collection of workbooks, guides and lesson notes for the Umazisi project – both for mentors and mentees. Robyn recognised that for the mentor to adequately convey the content, a workbook would need to be created to guide the mentor through all the intricacies of the content. Elena and I believe that she is producing a body of work that is world-class and deserving of great appreciation and thanks. We hope to have the workbooks completed by end of June to use in training the mentors.

Finally, I want to congratulate Tshepo Motaung on his role as head mentor of the Umazisi project. His practical and creative mind for growth will greatly benefit the Project moving forward. While we are still outlining his exact roles and responsibilities we are excited to see what will come from his desire and drive.

Over the next few weeks, we will establish our first meetings with the Umazisi team comprising of all the mentors and volunteers of the project. A way forward will be carved taking care of training, strategies and admin. I will try as best as possible to be transparent and informative of the progress in the Umazisi project over the next few months!

School

Starting a school is a strange project in that, it is so large that one can’t quite comprehend the myriad of requirements. With this “knowledge of our lack of knowledge” we decided the best way forward is to form two teams:

• A philosophy team: purpose of which is to establish a clear path on how the school will function from the perspective of its ethos, teaching style, human support structures, needs and desires. The philosophy team will comprise of people who are, at their core, educators of mind heart and will – in whichever way that is manifest. They believe and live the philosophy of the Alvira foundation and seek to establish a school that reflects this philosophy in every way possible.
• A business team: purpose of which is to deal with and strategise the financial and business model of the school as well as the school grounds. The business team will be a team of people who seek to move with practicality, creativity and thought. Running a school is at its core a business and so questions like: what will the fee structure look like? – what will the generators of income be? – and how should the grounds be used and maintained? – will need to be taken care of by the business team.

The two teams will naturally move alongside one another making sure the needs of the one or supported and refined by the other. Currently, we have drafted an initial idea of who we believe could fit in either team, but, we are still in the early phase. If anyone reading this has strong ideas or suggestions of who they think could fit into either of these two teams, you are more than welcome to contact the foundation!

Thought for the month – what is beauty?

A few weeks ago, I came across a wonderful video essay titled “In search for absolute beauty”. In which questions like: “why does beauty have such a strong influence on life?” – “why is it beauty which we so often seek when creating something?” – “why is it beauty which drives us, at times, to move with incredible conviction?” – are explored. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so give it a watch and let me know if it stirs up anything in you next time you see me.

Beauty is something which has found itself consistently appearing in my life. I suppose the first cognition of it, would have been like many people, in the aesthetic beauty – most notably of the human form, Over time, this expanded to a larger scope – landscapes, art and music. However, these still remained within the aesthetic realm. Now, as I’ve been exposed to more life encounters, I notice beauty has begun to transcend inward – a beautiful space isn’t one that “pleases” my senses, but one that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Makes me feel like my soul is being hugged. Why the video speaks to me, is because it is an articulation of beauty which gives form, and reflects the abstract experience that I have been feeling more and more within me.

To me, beauty lies as the heart of truth – a physicist named Richard Feynman, in his interview about “The Beauty of a flower”, aptly makes this argument for how, in its pursuit of truth, science and physics only enhances the beauty rather than detracts it (a sentiment often shared by public opinion). Einstein was once quoted with – “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain, children, all our lives”. What I find incredible, and telling, is how, in a field of ultimate reason and rigor, something as ethereal as beauty would sit at the cornerstone of its great thinkers; an example made concrete is how Einstein, as many other physicists, would often look at his equations and use beauty as the yardstick to decide if they were correct or not.

As a quick aside, one last source of beauty which I did not include, as it did not fit the narrative I was expanding on, is that of the poem by the poet Kahlil Gibran – On Beauty. I really wanted to still put it here, as he offers a unique perspective on beauty; a perspective that hopefully sparks ideas for anyone who reads it.

Next time you have a conversation with someone, ask them what they find to be beautiful, how beauty moves them and why it moves them. In doing so, you might just find a sense of beauty in them that you never knew.

Thank you for you time reading this, and I wish you all a fantastic last few days of April and beginning of May!