Traditional leader gifts pupils with new shoes

TO COMMEMORATE Human Rights Day, AmaTshomane traditional leader and Contralesa provincial secretary, Nkosi Mkhanyiseli Dalisizwe Dudumayo yesterday donated 20 pairs of school shoes to destitute children.

The pupils were forced to go to school barefoot, having never owned a pair of proper shoes for years.

They suffer more when the winter chill starts to bite while with their ragged gumboots or takkies and tattered uniform saw them being ridiculed by schoolmates.

Some of the children have not attended for weeks because their parents had no money to buy them new shoes.

Yesterday was a day like no other for pupils at impoverished Gqubeni Junior Secondary School at Gqubeni village on the outskirts of Mqanduli as they received their new school shoes.

For some the sensation of school shoes on their feet was also brand new.

Dudumayo said that it pained him to see the situation of the children.

“Children without school shoes and uniform become objects of ridicule and this leads to low-selfesteem. Some of these children nearly drop out of school. To ensure their right to education, I decided to take money from my own pocket, buy shoes and donated to them. It’s a pity that I do not have money to buy shoes for every child. Educating children no matter where they are is one of the biggest steps we can take towards ending extreme poverty,’’ he said.

Dudumayo, who leads an impoverished community largely dependent on social grants, lashed out at parents who abused child support grants and did not take care of children’s wellbeing and education rights.

“By not buying the children what they need for school parents are depriving them of their fundamental right to education, which is also essential for the exercise of all other human rights,’’ he said.

Fitting the schoolchildren with their smart new shoes, Dudumayo said: “Correct footwear is a symbol of pride and dignity, especially in the classroom. I have witnessed the knock-on affect that a single pair of school shoes can have on an individual, family and community. Children who don’t have school shoes often suffer from emotional issues like a lack of self-esteem, a lack of personal dignity, ridicule, and perform poorly at school. They also endure the indignity of walking to school barefoot along rough terrain or not attending school at all,’’ he said.

During the handover, Dudumayo became emotional when a bare-footed seven-year-old Grade 1 pupil, who had no shoes and uniform for months, came forward to accept the new pairs of shoes, beaming with a smile in appreciation of the token.

“My parents are unemployed. The shoes they bought were worn-out months before Christmas and I did not even have shoes for Christmas and for school, but my grandmother will be happy to see me wearing new shoes,’’ said the pupil.

Dudumayo is now embarking on a bigger-scale programme, collecting shoes and uniforms for impoverished pupils in the schools in his villages.