BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – Waterford Kamhlaba had its 16th Eswatini Career fair yesterday where they hosted a variety of organisations in the country.
These included World Vision Eswatini, World Vision’s aspiration for all girls and boys is that they are educated for life. This requires that children attain the core cognitive, emotional, social and essential life skills they need in order to reach their full potential to lead productive and fulfilling lives.
Fortunately, WV Eswatini had the chance to educate children about this as they joined other partners and organisations at Waterford Kamhlaba to celebrate their 16th Eswatini Career Fair.
According to World Vision, Career Fairs are not only a way to get clarity on one’s ideal career path; they can also open children’s eyes to new possibilities they had never considered before. It also allows them to gain insight into places they hadn’t looked before.
Meanwhile, the United States of America (USA) Embassy also had their Education USA team at the 16th edition of WaterfordKamhlaba UWCSA’s annual Careers Fair.
Chargé d’ Affaires Earl Miller said “joining different companies and institutions that have come together to empower high school students from different schools in Eswatini with learning opportunities and career options, is the what happened yesterday,”
He further said the Education USA is a Department of State network that promotes U.S. higher education to students around the world by offering accurate, comprehensive and guidance about opportunities to study in accredited post-secondary institutions in the United States.
Worth noting is that Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa was founded in 1963 as a response to the separate and unequal educational systems in South Africa. The property on which the School is situated was originally a farm called Waterford Park Estate.
Over the next couple of years, the school grew exponentially, and with it, support for its ethos and mission.
In 1967, King Sobhuza II granted Waterford School the name Kamhlaba, saying, “Wherever you are in the world, the earth does not distinguish who you are. You live in it whatever your colour, whatever your religion, whatever your race. You live in it and it does not try to ostracise you or show any difference as to what you are. And this is the meaning of Kamhlaba.” And from then on the school was known as Waterford Kamhlaba.
During the same time of Waterford’s founding, another movement in education was beginning in the UK, the United World College movement (UWC).
At a time when the Cold War was at its height, UWC aimed to bring together young people from different nations to act as champions of peace through an education based on shared learning, collaboration and understanding. And in 1981, the two movements came together when Waterford Kamhlaba joined the UWC movement, becoming Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa (UWCSA).
