The beginning of a school year is always exciting and daunting for many learners because it presents a new class, new teachers, bigger responsibilities and a new learning opportunity. To many learners, a brand new pair of school shoes is part of the excitement that comes with starting another year of learning. However, in communities where unemployment is rife, for some learners owning a pair is a challenge.
Adopt-a-School Foundation and Monene Civils came together on 1 March 2019, to ensure that this year, buying a new pair of schools shoes is not a challenge for learners and parents of Mvelaphanda Primary School and Motshegofadiwa Primary School.
“Partnerships are essential for the success of Whole School Development. By mobilising funds from private organisations and individuals, we are able to tackle the challenges that we identify in our adopted schools” says Steven Lebere, Adopt-a-School Foundation Executive Director.
Monene Civils – an organisation that specializes in Civil Engineering donated R35 000 to Adopt-a-School Foundation to provide school shoes to needing children at Mvelaphanda Primary School in Tembisa and Motshegofadiwa Primary School in Hammanskraal. “With winter fast approaching, we wanted to exercise active citizenship through gifting a pair of shoes to a child,” said Deon Plotz, Managing Director at Monene Civils.
The Adopt-a-School Foundation’s main objectives is to support the creation and enhancement of a conducive learning and teaching environment in disadvantaged schools through a holistic, inclusive model called Whole School Development, aiming to address the academic, infrastructural, social and security environments in schools.
“When Monene Civils approached us to donate R35 000 we could not help but direct it to school shoes. The Foundation in partnership with Saint-Gobain has a long standing relationship with Mvelaphanda Primary School since 2013. The work executed through the Adopt-a-School Foundation includes construction of a fully resourced Grade R facility, an ablution facility, feeding scheme kitchen and donation of library books and dictionaries. Motshegofadiwa Primary School was adopted in 2003 by Merrill Lynch South Africa, the interventions include construction of an ablution facility, eight classrooms, computer laboratory, combination court, security fence, a fully resourced library and Grade R facility; visual support programme, vegetable garden, solar panels and donation of Physical Science and Mathematics resources,” says Steven Lebere.
The schools were very grateful for the donation. While teachers have the responsibility to educate, learners have the responsibility to actively learn but this is impossible if they are not mentally and physically equipped to be in the mind-set of learning. “A good pair of school shoes restores the confidence to a lot of learners who walk long distances in harsh terrain to get to school,” says Headmaster of Mvelaphanda primary School.
