Welcome UAE donation for Nolukhanyo school
Velile High School learners had a high-level delegation from the United Arab Emirates up on their feet dancing with a drum majorette squad, roof-raising singing and inspiring poetry last week.
UAE deputy ambassador Fatima Alsuwaidi led a team handing over school kit and learning tools to the school in Nolukhanyo, Bathurst.
Velile was the 17th South African school to receive the special attention of the UAE, and one of only two in the Eastern Cape. The windfall included 250 pairs of school shoes, uniforms and school bags, as well as stationery and books, tablets, a smartboard and 120 desks and chairs.
A further donation of 250 copies of Winning the Money Game was part of the donation and there to encourage learners to take financial literacy seriously was the author himself, Mlamluli Mbambo.
“It’s thanks to the good legacy of learners in past years,” said principal
Wanga Ntantiso. “From 2015 to 2020 this school produced good matric results.”
The 2020 matric class obtained a 69.4% pass rate, a drop from 2019’s 88.5%.
“They asked us what we wanted,” said Ntantiso, who has been at the school since 1994.
UAE Embassy project manager Buhle Sibanyoni later announced that they had committed to providing sanitary pads for the girls, for one year, as part of a countrywide programme. Ward 5 councillor Mzwandile Sweli expressed his sincere appreciation to the embassy for the gift to the community and one of the oldest schools in the area.
He revealed that Velile had been housed in a temporary buildings since 1996 and said he had raised the school’s plight in the provincial portfolio committee on education. The committee had met at Nomzamo Secondary School in Nemato the day before.
“I am happy the embassy has recognized this school,” Sweli said.
Learners led the entertainment that included the school choir conducted by Anele Tokwe, Maya Angelou’s poem And Still I Rise read by Unamandla Kofi, imbongi AchumaPayi, drum majorettes led by Anezwa Apleni and a welcoming speech by school representative Cindy Samson. Archbishop Vuyisile Futa of the Jerusalem Spiritual Catholic Church in Zion presided over prayers.