All Article Properties:
{
"access_control": false,
"status": "publish",
"objectType": "Article",
"id": "2753404",
"signature": "Article:2753404",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-06-10-christel-house-where-poverty-doesnt-limit-potential/",
"shorturl": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2753404",
"slug": "christel-house-where-poverty-doesnt-limit-potential",
"contentType": {
"id": "1",
"name": "Article",
"slug": "article"
},
"views": 0,
"comments": 0,
"preview_limit": null,
"excludedFromGoogleSearchEngine": 0,
"title": "Hope rises: How one school is redefining education for kids from Cape Town's poorest communities",
"firstPublished": "2025-06-10 10:55:34",
"lastUpdate": "2025-06-10 12:41:26",
"categories": [
{
"id": "29",
"name": "South Africa",
"signature": "Category:29",
"slug": "south-africa",
"typeId": {
"typeId": "1",
"name": "Daily Maverick",
"slug": "",
"includeInIssue": "0",
"shortened_domain": "",
"stylesheetClass": "",
"domain": "staging.dailymaverick.co.za",
"articleUrlPrefix": "",
"access_groups": "[]",
"locale": "",
"preview_limit": null
},
"parentId": null,
"parent": [],
"image": "",
"cover": "",
"logo": "",
"paid": "0",
"objectType": "Category",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/category/south-africa/",
"cssCode": "",
"template": "default",
"tagline": "",
"link_param": null,
"description": "Daily Maverick is an independent online news publication and weekly print newspaper in South Africa.\r\n\r\nIt is known for breaking some of the defining stories of South Africa in the past decade, including the Marikana Massacre, in which the South African Police Service killed 34 miners in August 2012.\r\n\r\nIt also investigated the Gupta Leaks, which won the 2019 Global Shining Light Award.\r\n\r\nThat investigation was credited with exposing the Indian-born Gupta family and former President Jacob Zuma for their role in the systemic political corruption referred to as state capture.\r\n\r\nIn 2018, co-founder and editor-in-chief Branislav ‘Branko’ Brkic was awarded the country’s prestigious Nat Nakasa Award, recognised for initiating the investigative collaboration after receiving the hard drive that included the email tranche.\r\n\r\nIn 2021, co-founder and CEO Styli Charalambous also received the award.\r\n\r\nDaily Maverick covers the latest political and news developments in South Africa with breaking news updates, analysis, opinions and more.",
"metaDescription": "",
"order": "0",
"pageId": null,
"articlesCount": null,
"allowComments": "1",
"accessType": "freecount",
"status": "1",
"children": [],
"cached": true
},
{
"id": "341015",
"name": "DM168",
"signature": "Category:341015",
"slug": "dm168",
"typeId": {
"typeId": "1",
"name": "Daily Maverick",
"slug": "",
"includeInIssue": "0",
"shortened_domain": "",
"stylesheetClass": "",
"domain": "staging.dailymaverick.co.za",
"articleUrlPrefix": "",
"access_groups": "[]",
"locale": "",
"preview_limit": null
},
"parentId": null,
"parent": [],
"image": "",
"cover": "",
"logo": "",
"paid": "0",
"objectType": "Category",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/category/dm168/",
"cssCode": "",
"template": "default",
"tagline": "",
"link_param": null,
"description": "",
"metaDescription": "",
"order": "0",
"pageId": null,
"articlesCount": null,
"allowComments": "1",
"accessType": "freecount",
"status": "1",
"children": [],
"cached": true
}
],
"content_length": 8649,
"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town is often described as a tale of two cities – one of ocean-view villas and elite private schools, the other of overcrowded flats, informal settlements and generations trapped in poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tucked away in Ottery, there’s a school that doesn’t just teach, it transforms. Christel House South Africa is a unique institution: an independent, no-fee, nonprofit school serving some of the city’s most under-resourced communities. Here, education isn’t just about passing exams, it’s about disrupting poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We are almost a contradictory concept. We are an independent school catering for poor children, which means that they don’t pay school fees. Our children are all coming from very dire situations. They are mostly backyard dwellers, staying in very poor communities. Some of them come from informal settlements,” said Christel House’s chief academic officer, Ronald Fortune.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This contradiction is deliberate. Christel House’s mission is simple and powerful: to ensure poverty does not limit potential.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We don’t want poverty to limit our children’s potential, and everything we do is geared towards that.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We as educators and we at the school need to find solutions and work around the issues that our children come with to school,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>More than a classroom</b></h4>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1397658\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-1624.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House learners\" width=\"3363\" height=\"2119\" /> <em>Christel House South Africa, located in Ottery, Cape Town, maintains a 98% daily attendance rate year-round. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2749434\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/P9-Taku-Inspire.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House educator Ronald Fortune\" width=\"768\" height=\"928\" /> <em>Christel House’s chief academic officer, Ronald Fortune. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To turn its mission into reality, the school wraps every child in a web of support that extends far beyond academics. Education doesn’t begin with a textbook, it begins with breakfast. Students receive daily transport to and from school, uniforms, two hot meals and a snack, on-site medical care, psychosocial counselling and long-term career and college planning. It’s the kind of holistic care most public schools simply can’t provide, but for Christel House, it’s non-negotiable.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Many of our students only eat what we give them at school – breakfast, lunch and a snack. We can’t teach a hungry child,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added that hunger is just one of the many barriers the school’s students face. Children arrive carrying the weight of food insecurity, unstable housing and often trauma.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You can’t teach a child who’s too sick to sit in class or too traumatised to concentrate, so we’ve built an entire system around our learners,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune knows this journey because he’s lived it. He grew up in Bonteheuwel and later Mitchells Plain, two communities marked by poverty and violence.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I know what it’s like to walk without shoes, never knowing if you’ll be safe. I know what it’s like when your parents can’t always provide,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christel House operates a dedicated health and wellness department with two nurses, two social workers and full-time professional counsellors. These staff members work daily with students, navigating neglect, abuse, grief and other heavy realities that often come with growing up in poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This deep investment in care pays off in ways that are both measurable and deeply human. The school maintains a 98% daily attendance rate year-round, which is nearly unheard of in the context in which Christel House operates.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Teaching with trauma in mind</b>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1397659 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3020.jpg\" alt=\"Chemistry lesson at Christel House\" width=\"3760\" height=\"2357\" /> <em>Christel House South Africa in Cape Town offers its learners holistic support, from free meals to psychosocial counselling and long-term career and college planning. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Christel House, every teacher understands this truth: before a child can learn, they need to feel safe.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the school’s students arrive carrying trauma, some visible, much of it buried beneath the surface. Many have experienced neglect, violence, abuse or loss. Some live in homes with incarcerated caregivers or face chronic food insecurity. Others have had to navigate gang territories just to get to school.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune explained that poverty and trauma bring with them a host of developmental delays, and that if you don’t address those underlying issues, learning can’t happen.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s why the school has made trauma-informed teaching part of its DNA. All staff, particularly educators, are trained not just in pedagogy, but also in neuroscience: how trauma rewires the brain and how the right kinds of classroom interactions can help to repair those pathways.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune explained how teachers at Christel House are taught to strategically activate the “feel-good” chemicals in the brain – serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin – through everyday interactions.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even Mondays require a different rhythm. “We know Mondays are hard. Our kids are coming back from chaotic weekends, often with no food, no sleep, no structure. You have to gently bring them back into a space where learning is possible,” said Fortune.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The school draws heavily from Eric Jensen’s book Teaching with Poverty in Mind, which Fortune called “a kind of bible” for the staff. The school doesn’t just train teachers once and leave them to figure it out. New educators go through a three-month acculturation process, guided by senior leaders, including Fortune, to help them unlearn assumptions and build a toolkit that’s specific to the needs of children so that they understand the weight the children carry and can still help them rise.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Beyond the finish line</b></h4>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1397663\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3317.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House learner\" width=\"3242\" height=\"1781\" /> <em>Christel House learners benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Christel House, students benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. This programme is designed to help students not only access higher education or employment, but also to stay and thrive there. It offers career guidance, vocational training, mentoring, help with tertiary applications and financial support through workshops and direct aid.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even after finishing high school, alumni remain connected and supported with job placements, career workshops, financial assistance, on-site resources and continuous mentorship.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune beamed with pride when he talked about the impact Christel House has had on its students’ lives.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“One graduate who stands out is now a doctor. He came to us from poverty, with so many obstacles stacked against him. Today, he’s a doctor. That’s the kind of future we’re building here,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The long-term success of the school’s alumni is matched by the unusual stability of its staff. In an education system where burnout is common and schools throughout the country face high teacher turnover, Christel House bucks the trend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We don’t lose teachers. They stay because they see the value in what they do,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>A school as a change agent</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune sees Christel House as a powerful agent of change, not just for its students, but also for their families, their communities and the country at large.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This is about more than marks. It’s about character. It’s about values. It’s about showing children that where they come from does not define where they can go,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He recalled one student who had to dodge gangsters just to get home safely.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He told me, ‘Sir, I have to run for my life every day’. But he kept showing up. He stayed the course. That’s what values can do.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another moment stays with him even more deeply. A young girl came to his office one Monday morning and quietly told him she’d been raped over the weekend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“She trusted us enough to say something. She knew this was a safe space, that she would be believed and supported,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asked what keeps him going, Fortune’s answer was straightforward: the students.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’ve always said the day my contribution becomes stale, I’d probably move on,” Fortune reflected. He believes that every community comes with its own challenges, and those challenges call for unique, deeply committed responses.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It takes something special to get these children to school, to keep them here and to walk with them until they reach the goals they never thought possible,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking around at the students, the dedicated staff and the steady stream of graduates carving out new paths in the world, Fortune’s contributions continue to yield results. “This is what keeps me here, 21 years later. This is why I never left.” Christel House’s overhead and fundraising costs are funded annually through a charitable grant from Endless Success Foundation. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.</span></i>\r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2749959\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DM-06062025-001-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1947\" height=\"2560\" />\r\n\r\n ",
"teaser": "Hope rises: How one school is redefining education for kids from Cape Town's poorest communities",
"externalUrl": "",
"sponsor": null,
"authors": [
{
"id": "359833",
"name": "Takudzwa Pongweni",
"image": "",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/author/takudzwa-pongweni/",
"editorialName": "takudzwa-pongweni",
"department": "",
"name_latin": ""
}
],
"description": "",
"keywords": [
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "3746",
"name": "Cape Town",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/cape-town/",
"slug": "cape-town",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Cape Town",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "4124",
"name": "Poverty",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/poverty/",
"slug": "poverty",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Poverty",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "4191",
"name": "Education",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/education/",
"slug": "education",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Education",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "17491",
"name": "School",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/school/",
"slug": "school",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "School",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "53544",
"name": "children",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/children/",
"slug": "children",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "children",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "67918",
"name": "Trauma",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/trauma/",
"slug": "trauma",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Trauma",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "374708",
"name": "DM168",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/dm168/",
"slug": "dm168",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "DM168",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "391932",
"name": "Takudzwa Pongweni",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/takudzwa-pongweni/",
"slug": "takudzwa-pongweni",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Takudzwa Pongweni",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "400096",
"name": "Good news",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/good-news/",
"slug": "good-news",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Good news",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "434926",
"name": "Christel House",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/christel-house/",
"slug": "christel-house",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Christel House",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "434927",
"name": "Eric Jensen",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/eric-jensen/",
"slug": "eric-jensen",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Eric Jensen",
"translations": null
}
}
],
"short_summary": null,
"source": null,
"related": [],
"options": [],
"attachments": [
{
"id": "96965",
"name": "Christel House learners benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)",
"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town is often described as a tale of two cities – one of ocean-view villas and elite private schools, the other of overcrowded flats, informal settlements and generations trapped in poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tucked away in Ottery, there’s a school that doesn’t just teach, it transforms. Christel House South Africa is a unique institution: an independent, no-fee, nonprofit school serving some of the city’s most under-resourced communities. Here, education isn’t just about passing exams, it’s about disrupting poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We are almost a contradictory concept. We are an independent school catering for poor children, which means that they don’t pay school fees. Our children are all coming from very dire situations. They are mostly backyard dwellers, staying in very poor communities. Some of them come from informal settlements,” said Christel House’s chief academic officer, Ronald Fortune.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This contradiction is deliberate. Christel House’s mission is simple and powerful: to ensure poverty does not limit potential.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We don’t want poverty to limit our children’s potential, and everything we do is geared towards that.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We as educators and we at the school need to find solutions and work around the issues that our children come with to school,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>More than a classroom</b></h4>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1397658\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"3363\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1397658\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-1624.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House learners\" width=\"3363\" height=\"2119\" /> <em>Christel House South Africa, located in Ottery, Cape Town, maintains a 98% daily attendance rate year-round. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2749434\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"768\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2749434\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/P9-Taku-Inspire.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House educator Ronald Fortune\" width=\"768\" height=\"928\" /> <em>Christel House’s chief academic officer, Ronald Fortune. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To turn its mission into reality, the school wraps every child in a web of support that extends far beyond academics. Education doesn’t begin with a textbook, it begins with breakfast. Students receive daily transport to and from school, uniforms, two hot meals and a snack, on-site medical care, psychosocial counselling and long-term career and college planning. It’s the kind of holistic care most public schools simply can’t provide, but for Christel House, it’s non-negotiable.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Many of our students only eat what we give them at school – breakfast, lunch and a snack. We can’t teach a hungry child,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added that hunger is just one of the many barriers the school’s students face. Children arrive carrying the weight of food insecurity, unstable housing and often trauma.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You can’t teach a child who’s too sick to sit in class or too traumatised to concentrate, so we’ve built an entire system around our learners,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune knows this journey because he’s lived it. He grew up in Bonteheuwel and later Mitchells Plain, two communities marked by poverty and violence.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I know what it’s like to walk without shoes, never knowing if you’ll be safe. I know what it’s like when your parents can’t always provide,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christel House operates a dedicated health and wellness department with two nurses, two social workers and full-time professional counsellors. These staff members work daily with students, navigating neglect, abuse, grief and other heavy realities that often come with growing up in poverty.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This deep investment in care pays off in ways that are both measurable and deeply human. The school maintains a 98% daily attendance rate year-round, which is nearly unheard of in the context in which Christel House operates.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Teaching with trauma in mind</b>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1397659\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"3760\"]<img class=\"wp-image-1397659 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3020.jpg\" alt=\"Chemistry lesson at Christel House\" width=\"3760\" height=\"2357\" /> <em>Christel House South Africa in Cape Town offers its learners holistic support, from free meals to psychosocial counselling and long-term career and college planning. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Christel House, every teacher understands this truth: before a child can learn, they need to feel safe.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the school’s students arrive carrying trauma, some visible, much of it buried beneath the surface. Many have experienced neglect, violence, abuse or loss. Some live in homes with incarcerated caregivers or face chronic food insecurity. Others have had to navigate gang territories just to get to school.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune explained that poverty and trauma bring with them a host of developmental delays, and that if you don’t address those underlying issues, learning can’t happen.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s why the school has made trauma-informed teaching part of its DNA. All staff, particularly educators, are trained not just in pedagogy, but also in neuroscience: how trauma rewires the brain and how the right kinds of classroom interactions can help to repair those pathways.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune explained how teachers at Christel House are taught to strategically activate the “feel-good” chemicals in the brain – serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin – through everyday interactions.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even Mondays require a different rhythm. “We know Mondays are hard. Our kids are coming back from chaotic weekends, often with no food, no sleep, no structure. You have to gently bring them back into a space where learning is possible,” said Fortune.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The school draws heavily from Eric Jensen’s book Teaching with Poverty in Mind, which Fortune called “a kind of bible” for the staff. The school doesn’t just train teachers once and leave them to figure it out. New educators go through a three-month acculturation process, guided by senior leaders, including Fortune, to help them unlearn assumptions and build a toolkit that’s specific to the needs of children so that they understand the weight the children carry and can still help them rise.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Beyond the finish line</b></h4>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1397663\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"3242\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1397663\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3317.jpg\" alt=\"Christel House learner\" width=\"3242\" height=\"1781\" /> <em>Christel House learners benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Christel House, students benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. This programme is designed to help students not only access higher education or employment, but also to stay and thrive there. It offers career guidance, vocational training, mentoring, help with tertiary applications and financial support through workshops and direct aid.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even after finishing high school, alumni remain connected and supported with job placements, career workshops, financial assistance, on-site resources and continuous mentorship.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune beamed with pride when he talked about the impact Christel House has had on its students’ lives.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“One graduate who stands out is now a doctor. He came to us from poverty, with so many obstacles stacked against him. Today, he’s a doctor. That’s the kind of future we’re building here,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The long-term success of the school’s alumni is matched by the unusual stability of its staff. In an education system where burnout is common and schools throughout the country face high teacher turnover, Christel House bucks the trend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We don’t lose teachers. They stay because they see the value in what they do,” Fortune said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>A school as a change agent</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortune sees Christel House as a powerful agent of change, not just for its students, but also for their families, their communities and the country at large.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This is about more than marks. It’s about character. It’s about values. It’s about showing children that where they come from does not define where they can go,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He recalled one student who had to dodge gangsters just to get home safely.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He told me, ‘Sir, I have to run for my life every day’. But he kept showing up. He stayed the course. That’s what values can do.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another moment stays with him even more deeply. A young girl came to his office one Monday morning and quietly told him she’d been raped over the weekend.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“She trusted us enough to say something. She knew this was a safe space, that she would be believed and supported,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asked what keeps him going, Fortune’s answer was straightforward: the students.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’ve always said the day my contribution becomes stale, I’d probably move on,” Fortune reflected. He believes that every community comes with its own challenges, and those challenges call for unique, deeply committed responses.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It takes something special to get these children to school, to keep them here and to walk with them until they reach the goals they never thought possible,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking around at the students, the dedicated staff and the steady stream of graduates carving out new paths in the world, Fortune’s contributions continue to yield results. “This is what keeps me here, 21 years later. This is why I never left.” Christel House’s overhead and fundraising costs are funded annually through a charitable grant from Endless Success Foundation. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.</span></i>\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2749959\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DM-06062025-001-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1947\" height=\"2560\" />\r\n\r\n ",
"focal": "50% 50%",
"width": 0,
"height": 0,
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"transforms": [
{
"x": "200",
"y": "100",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/Gj-keJzvqzxX2O6lcGczJ8AYEF0=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg"
},
{
"x": "450",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/in3L6e47-2ouQ4CcA8CQ1SwwM8A=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg"
},
{
"x": "800",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/G-Rmc-darJgRKnJZYMr0LTK2-jE=/800x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg"
},
{
"x": "1200",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/pAXMZ5THJOrI-_P_0CSVgClz4ZY=/1200x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg"
},
{
"x": "1600",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/V2lrqxl98trg2MOIvSmvF3_8utk=/1600x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg"
}
],
"url_thumbnail": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/Gj-keJzvqzxX2O6lcGczJ8AYEF0=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"url_medium": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/in3L6e47-2ouQ4CcA8CQ1SwwM8A=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"url_large": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/G-Rmc-darJgRKnJZYMr0LTK2-jE=/800x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"url_xl": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/pAXMZ5THJOrI-_P_0CSVgClz4ZY=/1200x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"url_xxl": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/V2lrqxl98trg2MOIvSmvF3_8utk=/1600x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Christel-House-SA-3064.jpg",
"type": "image"
}
],
"summary": "At Christel House South Africa education is not just about passing exams, it’s about disrupting poverty by providing holistic care, trauma-informed teaching and support to some of Cape Town’s most under-resourced children. ",
"template_type": null,
"dm_custom_section_label": null,
"elements": [],
"seo": {
"search_title": "Hope rises: How one school is redefining education for kids from Cape Town's poorest communities",
"search_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town is often described as a tale of two cities – one of ocean-view villas and elite private schools, the other of overcrowded flats, informal settlements and gene",
"social_title": "Hope rises: How one school is redefining education for kids from Cape Town's poorest communities",
"social_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town is often described as a tale of two cities – one of ocean-view villas and elite private schools, the other of overcrowded flats, informal settlements and gene",
"social_image": ""
},
"cached": true,
"access_allowed": true
} 
Christel House South Africa, located in Ottery, Cape Town, maintains a 98% daily attendance rate year-round. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)
Christel House’s chief academic officer, Ronald Fortune. (Photo: Supplied)
Christel House South Africa in Cape Town offers its learners holistic support, from free meals to psychosocial counselling and long-term career and college planning. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)
Christel House learners benefit from the school’s college and career programme, which extends support for five years into early adulthood. (Photo: Dylan Haskin)