Touched by the plight of a Grade 3 pupil, a teacher at Vuyani Primary School in Gugulethu rallied for support to help the youngster.
Nombini Ngqeza-Ngwendu said she noticed that Amkele Ngceyane was not wearing full uniform like other children and went to visit her home in Lotus informal settlement.
“I discovered that she was living with her sick mother and two other siblings under horrible conditions,” said Ms Ngqeza-Ngwendu.
She found out that Amkele’s father had passed away in January and her mother was unemployed.
“As a result of this Amkele was raising money by selling pieces of toilet paper in her community. This meant she would wait by the communal loos and offer people who are entering the toilets a piece of toilet paper for R2,” she said.
Ms Ngqweza-Ngwendu then decided she would buy her a school uniform and tracksuit and when she discussed this with the school’s service provider for uniforms, Bambanani Sewing Co-operative, they decided to get involved.
“We could feel her pain and as a way of giving back to the school we settled on offering the child all the required uniform so that she does not feel humiliated, ” said the co-op’s Zintle Bomali.
Welfare co-ordinator at the school, Fezeka Zide, said they dealt with a lot of similar cases at the school but the advent of Covid-19 had impacted their fundraising efforts to help more children.
“We are helping less children this year because of the situation but we are happy that a group of parliament workers visited us earlier in the year and donated some clothes for our learners.”
Amkele’s excited mother Lizeka Ngceyana said she was very happy that the school had gone out of its way to assist her child.
“I am a facing hard times and a gesture like this just lightens up my spirits and I pray that the teachers continue to get help so that they can aid more children,” she said.