Majodina hands over donations to needy pupils

WALKING long distances to school for 50 Duncan Village pupils in East London is now a thing of the past after they received much-needed bicycles from sport and recreation MEC Pemmy Majodina yesterday.

Majodina also donated more than 200 sanitary towels and 100 school shoes to the previously disadvantaged community.

Due the area’s high unemployment rate, most schoolgirls miss classes because they cannot afford sanitary towels – while the long distance to school also contributes to dropouts.

Some pupils in the area walk about two hours every day to and from school.

For 13-year-old Xolela Makhanda, who lives 10km from Inyathi Primary School, life will be much easier from now as he received new school shoes and a bicycle.

The Grade 6 pupil who was wearing grey socks and flip-flops because his school shoes were torn was ecstatic about receiving new shoes.

“The situation at home is not so good. My mother works as a domestic worker, so she can’t always afford to provide me with everything I need.

“I walk a long distance every day as I live far from school but today I’m so happy.

“I feel like I am going to enjoy coming to school because I’ll be like other kids now,” he said.

Inyathi Primary School teacher Ntombomzi Mbane said the donation will go a long way in helping them as a school.

“This is going to make our jobs as teachers very easy, because these children sometimes find it hard to concentrate in class, thinking about the situations they are faced with at home,” she said.

Mbane said it was very painful to watch her pupils wearing torn shoes, more especially in winter.

She said the school did a needsassessment for all their pupils. They prioritised pupils living in the newly established New Life informal settlement because it is the farthest from the school.

Majodina said she understood the pupils’ plight as she used to walk barefooted to primary school.

“I know how it feels not to have sanitary towels or even school shoes. My first pair of shoes were donated to me when I was in Standard 5 [now Grade 7]. Before that I used to go to school barefoot in cold or even when it was raining.”

The donations were made possible by Majodina’s department in partnership with Buffalo City Metro, MTN and Thembekile Mzantsi Foundation.