King-Luthuli Transformation Centre

King-Luthuli Transformation Centre

Writing in 1996, Mary Lean notes: "Each week over a thousand young people come to the King-Luthuli Transformation Centre (KLTC) in central Johannesburg to take part in the Saturday Study Club. There, in an informal atmosphere, the brighter students help the others to catch up with the subjects they find hardest. The idea, says founder Joseph Tshawane, is that learning should be fun.

"Tshawane founded KLTC in 1987, to promote the culture of learning in a country where, for 20 years, young people have called for `liberation before education'...

"KLTC also involves young people in cleaning up Johannesburg and trains some as `Guardian Angels', to discourage crime. The centre runs programmes for women and teachers too, and is funded by USAID and other foreign and local donors."

Start-up funds were channeled via the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change from the NED.