Hombolani puts St Mark's up in lights

              Hombolani Phiri-Macher ... our prayers are with her tonight

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), which is based at Wits University, invited all interested schools in all provinces to send teams to participate in a project called “the Environmental Sustainability Project (ESP)” earlier this year.

Hombolani Phiri-Macher (one of our youngsters at St Marks) was chosen to represent her school. The first round was a research paper on, “Fresh water and the effects of pollution and climate change”. After the research paper was handed in, teams were eliminated and the successful candidates then had to participate in a debate on climate change.

This debate was held in front of Foreign Dignitaries and Senators from the United States of America. After that more teams were eliminated and a presentation had to be done to choose the top six schools from each province.

Hombolani made it into the top six. The last round  took place on Thursday night. That round was to choose the overall winner. The presentation took place in front of members of Local Government, members of the United Nations, members of the USA Government and other Foreign Dignitaries; and was covered by SABC News, ETV News, CNN,  BBC and other overseas news broadcasters. The teams participating will also be interviewed by the presenters of 50/50. 

This is very exciting and Hombolani is really hoping to make it to the finals and attend the Cop 17 Summit in December. She has a great passion on Climate and Environmental Issues!!! Our prayers are with her tonight.


UPDATE: Dear friends we have just got the news from last night. Hombolani and team were pipped at the post and the Oprah Winfrey school team will go forward. But it's about the passion and not winning and our Eco Warrior, will to continue the fight to make this a safe planet for us all. Hombo we thank the Lord for your efforts and St Mark's is very proud of you.

Blessings,

The St Mark's Editorial team