Published June 28, 2009
By Jay Edwards
The Charlotte Observer
Rich Davies has kept in his mind the image from a picture he took in 2005 as he drove along a South African highway.
There was a young girl in a school uniform reading a book as she walked amid miles of poverty made obvious by the decrepit huts.
Davies' vision was born.
Now, Sbonelo Dube and Siphelele Ndlovu are results of that vision as they walk across the campuses of two Charlotte-area schools.
Dube is a rising senior at Charlotte Latin, Ndlovu is a sophomore at Charlotte Christian.
“I'm not doing this for myself,” Dube said recently. “I am doing it for all those kids who are going to follow me and be leaders in South Africa.”
Dube (Pronounced Du-BAY) and Ndlovu (New-DROVE-u) are two of what now is 15 students worldwide who benefit from the Sbonelo Scholarship Foundation. The nonprofit foundation also sponsors children in some of South Africa's top private schools.
The schooling costs about $22,000 a year. Foundation leaders say they have more than $600,000 in pledges through 2013.
Davies pays the foundation's administrative costs through his own company, Charlotte-based Pavilion Development. He grew up in South Africa but has lived in the United States since 1982. He came to Charlotte as a placekicker for Clemson University's football team.
“I really didn't expect the foundation to get this big, this fast,” Davies said recently.
“We obviously found something we believe in, and now it's really taken on a life of its own.”
Davies saw the extreme poverty during a family vacation.
Without knowing it, the Davies family started what became the Sbonelo Scholarship Foundation in 2006. They became tuition patrons for a student in South Africa.
That same year, Davies and Charlotte Latin headmaster Arch McIntosh met to discuss bringing a student to Charlotte. With the financial support of evangelist Michael Cassidy and his company, African Enterprise, some school officials there chose students who would be candidates to come to Charlotte.
Sbonelo Dube, whose name means “example” in his native Zulu language, became the first scholarship student in Charlotte.
“It's almost like living in two different worlds,” Dube said. “But it is a great thing. It is the opportunity of a lifetime for me, anyone else who might get the chance to do it.”
Dube and Ndlovu grew up in a town called Pietermaritzburg. Dube was one of three children raised by a single mother who worked as a part-time nurse. Ndlovu grew up in an area that was so plagued by the HIV/AIDS virus, he wrote a book about the disease when he was 9.
“Both have faced many challenges and overcome things most of us… could not imagine,” Davies said. “But through it all, they have maintained an amazing spirit. They are both equally remarkable young men.”
Both boys are back home in South Africa for the summer.
While Davies had the vision, Johan Immelman, the foundation's chief executive officer, also has been a driving force. He is former commissioner of the South African PGA Tour.
He helped get the support of PGA professionals Gary Player, Tim Clark, both of South Africa, and Lucas Glover, the Greenville, S.C., native who won last week's U.S. Open.
“A vision is always to the benefit of others,” Immelman said (he's the father of 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman). “Rich Davies saw a need that really hit home for him, and he has done everything in his power to make that vision reality.”
Immelman has boosted foundation fundraising by holding networking dinners at five PGA tour stops: the Honda Classic in Palm Beach, Fla.; the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte; the AT&T National in Washington, D.C.; the Barclays Classic in Jersey City, N.J.; and the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
“We have come a long way in a short time,” Immelman said. “But even with 15 students, it still seems like a small endeavor. There are so many more deserving students out there.”
One of the foundation's goals is to teach the students to be leaders.
“I want to be the best person I can be,” Dube said. “But that is all so that I can put myself in a position to help other people. Mr. Davies is a great example…. My goal is to be able to do the same thing.”
To view the article online, go to www.charlotteobserver.com.