Head: youth and community, Equal Education

His parents were the first in his family to finish school and obtain degrees. The significance of this was not lost on Brockman, who has always appreciated the opportunities afforded him. A University of Cape Town graduate, Brockman joined the Khayelitsha- based non-governmental organisation Equal Education in 2010 to improve schools in the Cape’s most deprived communities.

His first task was to by show parents how to contribute through initiatives such as food gardens and libraries. Today, parent branches have taken off on their own paths and are growing organically. In addition to pushing Equal Education’s book drive, which opened 15 school libraries from Mitchell’s Plain to Hermanus, Brockman played a major role in organising the 20000-strong march on Parliament last year, helping ordinary citizens to assert their educational rights. “Most of all,” he says, “it’s about a team of like-minded people, working against the dysfunction of a highly unequal education system.”

— Ian Macleod

Website: equaleducation.org.za