The FESPA Foundation has made several visits to Malekapane Primary School in Limpopo, where they have identified various challenges faced, and how the foundation can help with these. According to FESPA Foundation team leader, Steve Thobela ka Mdlalose, schools like Malekapane are often disadvantaged and underdeveloped. ‘This is where FESPA Foundation comes in,’ he said.
Founded in October last year by FESPA CEO Neil Felton, the FESPA Foundation addresses two key goals: repurposing exhibition materials that would otherwise go to waste; and supporting education in rural communities by giving young learners better opportunities through access to improved resources.
Malekapane Primary School has 97 learners, and nine staff members, including the principal. Only six are actual teaching staff, of which two of them are not on the official payroll as they are volunteers.
The school principal has outlined some of the challenges she has had to deal with since coming to this school, namely ageing infrastructure.
The building’s roof has no form of insulation, and the temperature in this area can go up to 42°C. The ‘kitchen’ is built with mud and stones. The principal has a project to produce some bricks to rebuild a new kitchen but currently the gas stove is on the floor, and is dangerous to children and staff.
Although there has been much talk in government about eradicating pit toilets, these toilets still exist in the school.
‘The FESPA Foundation is giving moral support to the management team of the schools we assist, especially the principals,’ said Thobela ka Mdlalose. ‘We listen to them, and understand their challenges and how they would like us to assist. We give advice and offer to rally the governing body and the rest of the community to support the school.’
‘The School Governing Body (SGB) and the community at large are encouraged by the presence of the Foundation. It brings hope and they are then more willing to contribute. We only then give financial support, buy all the necessities and help with project management and administration. In this case, the financial contribution to Malekapane Primary School was R5000.’
‘We will now be taking all the printed materials from the recent FESPA expo, held in Germany in May, to the school. We also continue to raise funds to build the kitchen and would appreciate the industry’s assistance. The idea is that this is not a once-off thing. We build a permanent relationship with the school, hence the programme where we ask larger companies in the industry to adopt the school for ongoing support.’
The Macheme primary school in another village in Limpopo has been shut down, and children are ferried every morning to a different village to be educated.
‘Other than Macheme, we are busy building toilets at Evane Combine school, which was also our pilot project. We have selected three more schools: Pitseng ya Thuto Primary School, Madesei Primary School and Batau Primary School.’
To contribute to helping these schools, please contact Steve Thobela on +27 79 502 7995 or steve.thobela@fespa.com. Click here for more information about The FESPA Foundation.