Even in post-Apartheid South Africa, young people have been referred to as the country's "lost generation."

Often ignored, many of them live in substandard conditions with little or no adult supervision, and regard prison as a refuge that at least provides shelter and three meals a day.

In 1997, Mama Jackey approached then-President Nelson Mandela with a bold plan to save these children. Her goal: to reach out to disenfranchised youth ages 12 to 22 - including rape victims (some of whom are HIV-positive), drug addicts, rapists, juvenile offenders, and victims of abuse and neglect - and enroll them in an innovative new school program.

Using a mixture of tough love and compassion, she offered hope, and students began coming to her school voluntarily.

Willie Ebersol traveled to South Africa, where four students at the Ithuteng Trust School told their harrowing stories. He subsequently followed them on a tumultuous journey to the maximum-security Johannesburg prison Sun City, and then on to a wilderness camp in the Kwazaulu-Natal hinterland for a week that changed their lives forever.

ITHUTENG {NEVER STOP LEARNING features short film dramatizations of traumatic and life-changing instances in the students' lives, which are directed and acted out by the young people themselves as a way of developing better coping skills.

ITHUTENG {NEVER STOP LEARNING} recently received the Crystal Heart Award at the 2006 Heartland Film Festival, as well as being named Best Documentary Film at the HATCH Film Festival and Best Humanitarian Film at the Telluride MountainFilm Festival. It also screened at the Empire International Film Festival and the Urbanworld Film Festival.

ITHUTENG {NEVER STOP LEARNING} is directed by Willie Ebersol; producers, Charlie Ebersol and Kip Kroeger; editor, Charlie Ebersol; assistant editor, Susan Saint James.