Uniform gifts pack a punch

MORE than 100 children wore broad smiles as they received new school uniforms at the Isilimela Comprehensive High School in Langa last Saturday.

The department of social development visited the school bearing gifts for the children as part of their Social Relief of Distress programme.

Minister Bathabile Dlamini said the aim of this project, Mikondzo, was to make children “comfortable at school”.

She said through projects like this they hoped to break the poverty cycle by honing the skills of unemployed women around the country who made the uniforms.

“When children from poor households go to school wearing old and ragged uniforms, or when they don’t have one, they feel dejected. Some even choose not to go to school. A proper uniform makes a child feel confident that they belong because there is no apparent difference between themselves and other children. This puts them at ease and they are able to focus on learning,” explained Dlamini.

The minister’s spokeswoman Lumka Olifant said the children were identified by school teachers as well as social workers. “They identified children in need. We want children to look and feel confident like their peers.”

Siphokazi Mshumpela, a grade five pupil from Vuyani Primary School, was overjoyed to receive her pack which includeda winter and summer uniform.

“I am very happy with my new uniform because now I will look like a school child. My old uniform was small and short, I had been wearing it for years because my mother could not afford to buy a new uniform.”

Her mother, Thobeka Mshumpela, said they lived with 13 other relatives in their fourroom home in Gugulethu and they were unemployed. She said they “lived on the child support grants of five of the children and the money was not enough.”

“I sometimes get odd jobs which help but they are very scarce. These uniforms for both my daughters will ensure they look good at school,” said Mshumpela.

Pupils for six primary schools including Stormont Madubela Primary School, Intshinga Primary School, Zimasa Primary School, Lwazi Primary School, Vuyani Primary School, Siyabulela Primary School and Sivuyiseni Primary School benefitted. Last year 14 859 uniform packs were distributed nationally.

PICTURES: MICHAEL WALKER COOL AT SCHOOL: Lilitha Mlokotili Grade 4, Bambo Kaya Grade 1, Emihle Mthuzula Grade 5 and Athule Nywage Grade 4. Children from 10 schools received uniform packs from the department of Social Development.

BRINGING COMFORT: Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini.

SHY: Siphokazi Mshumpela, Amahle Magele and Akhona Mshumpela, all in Grade 5.