Children of Africa Project

ROOIBOKKRAAL – A project to assist Sekgweng Primary School has been initiated. The project is the brainchild of the daughter of one of the farm owners in the Rooibokkraal area where the school is situated. The school is 115km north of Thabazimbi. The school consists of 117 pupils, 3 teachers, 4 classrooms and 3 rooms that are used as dormitories. Of the 117 pupils, 86 are living in the dormitories.

The pupils are children of farm workers working on the surrounding farms. The average net monthly income per household is a R1200 and therefore there is no contribution to a school fund. The school thus has no source of income other than a small grant given by the Department of Education. The Department does not provide comprehensive financial assistance to the school as the school is partly located on privately owned land.

The school is reliant on the goodwill of the farm owner to provide the 86 living-in children with a meal a day. The meal consists of porridge and soup served once a day. Living conditions are horrendous. There is no running water and toilets at the dormitories. The children are required to bath in two buckets and the toilets are mere holes in the ground. The children are separated into three groups. All the young children stay together, with the older boys and girls separated into two rooms. There is not enough beds and the beds that are there don’t have mattresses, linen or pillows. Children sleep on steel beds and on the ground. Some have blankets that they share.

The dormitories have no glass in the windows and in winter time the children sleep huddled together to keep warm and in summer time they have to be on the look-out for the snakes that make their way inside through the glassless windows.

The classrooms don’t have sufficient chairs and tables and as a result most of the children have to sit on the ground. There is no visual aids to decorate the classrooms and proper learning is hampered by the lack of textbooks and stationary.

A fund raising event has been arranged to be held on 25 November 2009. The money raised on 25 November 2009 will be used to renovate the ablution facilities, fix the windows, ceilings etcetera. The money raised will however not be enough to provide the school with all that is required. We therefore need sponsorships to assist the school with stationary, textbooks, bedding, beds, tables, chairs, food etcetera.

Volunteers are planning to cycle to the school in January 2010 to assist in some of the renovations. They see this project as an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of all the children. These children currently have no prospect of a bright future without the intervention of community members. Volunteers in the Thabazimbi area, who are considering to assist in this project, either by donating funds, painting of classrooms or with the cycling event in January may contact Venessa Kleyn on 012 993 3501 or 082 864 4133.