Experimenting With Science

After struggling with science at arural school with few resources, Bathabile Mpofu now helps disadvantaged pupils countrywide with her ChemStart science kits

- Glynis Horning

Bathabile excelled at school and dreamed of becoming a doctor. But her school at Mahlabathini (Ulundi) in Zululand had no science lab or equipment – science was learnt only through textbooks, and her matric marks in science were not good enough for her to be accepted to study medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Instead she enrolled for a BSc, but even that was a challenge: ‘In our first science session we were given a list of supplies and told to check we had them in our allocated cupboards – I didn’t even know what most of them were! Coming from a place where people think you’re a genius, it’s very difficult. Your confidence takes a knock and you don’t want to let anyone down.’

She soldiered on against the odds, eventually getting her degree. She then took a job as a laboratory technician at the university, helping students do experiments: ‘So many of them struggled just like I had done, and I could empathise and help. But it was heartbreaking and just didn’t feel right – I wanted to do more.’