In 2012 Shumani Nembudani, the Chief Dreamer and Founder of Dream in Colour, missioned back to Shayandima; a township situated in the outskirts of Thohoyandou, (the Central Business District of Vhembe). This is the township the Chief Dreamer comes from and calls home. The reason for the trip had been inspired during her time at Wits university (a couple of years earlier) where she tutored 1st year students computational maths and founded passion and gratification from it.

 

She then decided to visited Shayandima Secondary School, which is one of the many high schools in Shayandima. Whilst at the school and with the help from Tshiembe Netshiungani, Shumani sought to engage with the learners (through interviews) and find out from them what major problems they were facing with the exception of the country wide shortages in school text books.

It was pretty evident from looking at the state of the classrooms that these learners were not afforded the same learning opportunities as their counterparts in urban areas and private sectors.
The challenges faced by these learners included a lack of (misinformed) knowledge regarding how the application process  around the higher education institutions works, a lack of quality guidance regarding what careers options to take. The learners did not have access to a library facility at the school, the school did not provide the learners with (technological infrastructure) computers to keep them abreast so with the  current technological advancements. The science laboratory lacked essential equipments for them to actually perform practicals.

This gave the Chief Dreamer an urge to start a non-profit organization that would be a solution to these problems that are not only faced by learners from Shayandima Secondary, but by many other learners across rural, some urban rural & township schools.

With the help from fellow dreamers, Rudzani Mutshinya & Khutadzo Malinda Dream in Colour was then founded in 2015 as a means to give learners a Hope to Dream and become pioneers in the truest form.

 

The main issues are that

• Some pupils are not applying to institutions of Higher Education due to a lack of (application) funds

• Pupils do not have access to prescribed or additional Study Guides

• The school does not having a library centre or library facility

• The pupils do not read novels outside the prescribed texts

• The pupils lack motivation