We have set up this fund in memory of our mother. All donations will go towards helping disadvantaged girls and young women in South Africa have access to educational opportunities. We are planning to sponsor pupils through high school, focusing on those who would not be able to afford to go to school. All schools are fee paying in South Africa, even Government ones. We are hoping to fund a child from Alexandra township to attend a good high school. Alexandra is in Johannesburg and is one of the poorest urban areas in the country. A significant number of Alexandra residents live in informal settlements (shacks) without access to proper running water and other civic amenities.
We thank you for your interest and are very grateful for your support.
Gill, Jenny, John, Margy and Bridget
Dorothea Rigsby Pitt (7 May 1925 – 12 December 2009)
Dorothea Pitt (affectionately known as Dodo) was born in Pretoria in 1925. Her father, Thomas Becklake, was a top-ranking British civil servant and Director of the South African Mint. Dodo attended Pretoria Girls High School, and read English at Wits University. During the War, she joined the Womens' Auxillary Air Force, and was promoted to Air Corporal, carrying out research on the effects of decompression chambers on air crews.
Dodo had a long and successful teaching career. First at Chisipite School in Harare, and then as English/Latin teacher, and Headmistress of St. Mary’s School in Johannesburg, where she was highly regarded by colleagues and pupils. After the Soweto uprising in 1976 she employed black teachers and admitted black pupils, risking the closure of the school in defiance of apartheid laws. One of her former pupils is quoted as saying: ‘She encouraged us to be fearless and adventurous, and develop our self-confidence in our own identity ... Almost two decades before our country obtained democracy and liberation, Mrs Pitt had already started liberating the minds of many a South African.' Later she was invited to become the first Director of the multi-racial Independent Examinations Board.
In retirement, Dodo remained active, producing curriculum material and teaching knitting and reading, as well as spending time with her five children and twelve grandchildren.Throughout her life she was a staunch believer in the importance of an integrated and diverse education system to support the needs of all South Africans.
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