Overview
Dikatole--which means "lost child"--is an informal settlement near Johannesburg and home to over 25,000 desperately poor people. Dikatole contains many children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, or simply abandoned; they roam the streets in search of food and clean water. In Dikatole, children often as young as eight years old have sole responsibility to care for their younger siblings.

Despite these challenging circumstances, located in the center of Dikatole is a small nursery school run by a local business woman. Through her generosity, the children of Dikatole are educated from ages two to five years old; after they graduate from the nursery school, most do not have access to further education because public primary and secondary school is not free in South Africa. Without assistance these youngsters could not afford to continue their education. The Dikatole Scholarship Fund (DSF) raises money to allow these children to stay in school.

History and Background
The DSF was initiated by Jake Masters in 2005, when he was a high school student living in the United Kingdom. On his first trip to Dikatole, Jake distributed more than 3,500 donated beanie babies to the children at the nursery school. Finding these youngsters' sense of hope and optimism inspiring (despite the fact that they have very few material possessions, the children have big dreams), Jake changed his focus from simply collecting toys to trying to raise money to help these orphaned and vulnerable youths go to school.

With the help of generous individuals and corporations in the United States and the United Kingdom, Jake ensured that the students graduating from the nursery school in 2005 would be provided with academic scholarships for the duration of their primary and secondary school education. In addition to supplying these academic scholarships, DSF supports an after school homework center in Dikatole that tutors 75 students and provides them with a daily meal.

Dikatole has become a place where Jake volunteers during school breaks and summer recesses. On recent visits, DSF has donated more than 15,000 books to local schools; donated new soccer balls and uniforms to the children it supports; treated its scholarship recipients to bowling alley and theme park field trips and a mardi gras celebration; refurbished a previously inoperable swimming pool at the Bethesda AIDS Orphanage; and presented a high school basketball team in Durban that was playing its games either barefoot or in dress shoes with new Nike basketball sneakers.

In the African language of Sotho, the saying "Ekojwa e sale metsi" literally translated means "bend it while it's wet." This phrase is typically applied to young people, for if an individual needs a strong characteristic or working skill, it is much easier to teach them while they are young. DSF affords its scholarship recipients the academic support they need at an early age, as education is the best vaccine available to break the cycle of HIV/AIDS and poverty for these youths.