YES, Mgoqo, Toppers donate to Emthunzini Wethemba
MGOQO Primary School’s netball and soccer teams in collaboration with Toppers Uniforms yesterday donated 100 packs of sanitary pads to Emthunzini Wethemba Children’s Home as part of their Youth in Education through Sports (YES) programme.
YES is a programme that was initiated by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) in 1999 to impart life skills to youthful athletes using sport as a platform.
The programme is made up of three components, sport, peer education and community projects.
Youth teams compete in all three components, which are given equal weighting in competitions for purposes of judging.
“Under the programme, we are encouraged not only to take part in sports, but community service as well. As part of our community service, we heard Dot Youth talking on the radio about some less privileged youths that cannot afford basic needs, especially the girl child.
“We then asked them to identify an orphanage we could make a donation to and we ended up choosing Emthunzini Wethemba,” said Marlane Makanjera of Mgoqo Primary.
“We have done other activities, such as filling pot holes in our community. We would like to thank our sponsors, who helped us with the donation and hope their generosity will not end here, but continue to fill gaps in the community,” she said.
Emthunzini Wethemba administrator Anita Maria Dick said: “As an institution, we are so grateful that the teams identified us.
Although it was a surprise, our prayers were answered because as a non-profit making organisation, we sometimes struggle providing these basic needs.
“Here we have 36 children in total, so providing for them is sometimes hard. We hope the school will continue making a difference in people’s lives.”
Mgoqo Primary has been active in the YES programme and are the netball defending champions while the boys’ soccer team was last year’s runner-up.
Teams start competing in the YES Games at ward through district, provincial and regional levels before the national finals hosted by one province as a precursor to the National Youth Games.
The programme has been used extensively to address key developmental issues, such as HIV/ Aids — @khumzallen.