By Masilo Malakwane
QWA QWA – The office of the Thabo Mofutsanyana district municipality Speaker in collaboration with the #1MillionSchoolShoes campaign distributed 175 pairs of school shoes to vulnerable leaners of the Mphatlalatsane communities last Saturday.
In an interview, the Speaker Thabo Mokoena told The Guard that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent floods in the district had resulted in many households losing an income, with basic necessities such as school uniforms becoming unaffordable in poorer communities in the deep rural areas.
“Such initiatives therefore assist communities who are from such socio-economic backgrounds,” Mokoena said.
The Speaker who was accompanied by DA-councillor Marais Marê, emphasized the importance of forming a social compact with communities.
“As you can see today we have partnered with #1MillionSchoolShoesCampaign; we want to assist parents who can’t afford to buy their children school uniforms.”
The #1MillionSchoolShoes Campaign which started in 2015, has since donated over 200,000 pairs of school shoes across the nine provinces. It’s treasurer, Lesego Mudau said the goal of the campaign is to distribute one million pairs of shoes countrywide and instill hope in school children.
“After receiving a positive response countrywide, we decided to put plans in place to make it a municipality initiative, where every school within various district municipalities would be able to receive a donation of school shoes for vulnerable learners”
He added that they have partnered with many municipalities to assist them in identifying schools with learners who are most vulnerable.
“So far we have gone to Xhariep district in this province, and we now are in Thabo Mofutsanyana. Our aim is to continue donating until we reach our target of one million school shoes.”
A Mphatlalatsane resident Moloi Lethola Abraham, said the school and the district municipality had brought a smile to many children’s faces, including her 10-year old daughter Reitumetse.
“We are very grateful to the school, district municipality and the #1MillionSchoolShoes Campaign for giving out school shoes to our needy children at my village,” Lethola said.
