Print for Good: The FESPA Foundation transforms lives across sub-Saharan Africa

The FESPA Foundation's "Adopt a School" initiative, spearheaded by Steve Thobela, aims to connect print companies with under-resourced schools in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Beyond providing crucial printed educational materials, the initiative seeks partnerships to address fundamental needs like safe infrastructure and food security, recognising that print's impact is limited without these basics. Four specific schools facing dire conditions are the initial focus.

“We want companies to ‘adopt a school’” explains Steve Thobela, the FESPA Foundation’s Africa Coordinator. A veteran of several decades of experience at senior levels of both the business and charity sectors in South Africa, Steve is spearheading the Foundation’s strategy on the ground. Working with local schools to provide free printed resources – and a lot more besides – Steve is working to identify and assist schools in South Africa in particular, but also more widely across sub-Saharan Africa, including Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania.

‘Adopt A School’ initiative

With so much depravation and so much need across the whole region, it can be difficult to know where to start. At FESPA Global Print Expo 2025 in Berlin, the FESPA Foundation’s ‘adopt a school’ strategy aims to link companies in FESPA’s network with specific schools, leveraging the power and creativity of the industry to support four schools in particular in South Africa’s Limpopo Province – schools in which some of the children’s most basic needs are not being met.

Steve explains: “We want to promote the power of print and through the cooperation of the FESPA Foundation’s partners, as well as FESPA’s members, we’re in a position to be able to supply an enormous number of high quality print resources. But the work of the Foundation goes much deeper, because print alone is not enough. What use are educational posters on crumbling walls? What use are any educational resources at all when children are too hungry to focus, or when roofs leak, floors collapse and toilet facilities are unsanitary or unsafe?”

He continues: “We know the meaning print can have, and the impact it can make, but in inviting companies to ‘adopt a school’, we’re asking for them to partner with specific schools to meet their most basic needs first. Only then print can make a real difference, and a real impact.”

Four schools

Limpopo province sits in the far northeast of South Africa, sharing international borders with Mozambique to the east, Zimbabwe to the north, and Botswana to the west. Though the county’s capital, Pretoria, and its largest city, Johannesburg, lie just to the south, Limpopo is a predominantly rural province, known for cattle ranching and for vast nature and game reserves. Its six million inhabitants are spread across a geographic area roughly the size of England.

In the isolated heart of the province, a long way from the busy main road that links Johannesburg with the Zimbabwe border (and from there, the rest of Africa), are four schools facing a range of acute challenges.

Batau Primary School

One of the first things visitors to Batu Primary School notice, is that the children are not alone. With no fences, the cattle that roam the communal rangelands that surround the school, wander freely through the grounds. The clanging of the heavy bells around their necks is a constant distraction and the sheer number of cattle often poses a safety risk to the children, with serious injuries not uncommon.

Building a fence around the school grounds sounds like a simple enterprise – but with budgets stretched to absolute breaking point, there is simply no money available for the necessary materials.

Infrastructure is also a serious challenge. Only one of the school’s buildings is a robust, bricks and mortar structure, while all the others are technically classified as ‘temporary mobile classrooms’. In reality, they are of course, anything but temporary, with the school forced to make do with them for many years, even after they’ve begun to fall apart.

The situation had grown so desperate at Batau Primary School that the principal, Mrs Mokabane, had just written, though not yet submitted, her letter of resignation when Steve Thobela’s visit on behalf of the FESPA Foundation gave her new hope. The promise of colourful posters, wallcharts and wallpapers to inspire and educate. The promise of donated uniforms, with printed emblems, and the promise of classroom materials. But more than that, a promise to seek to address the fundamental problems facing the school and disrupting the children’s education: the lack of fences to keep out the cattle – and much needed repairing or replacing of the schools dilapidated ‘temporary’ buildings.

Pitseng ya Thuto Primary School

Roughly translating as ‘In the Education Pot’, Pitseng ya Thuto is a school that strives to give its pupils the best possible start in life. The school’s English language motto: “Learn and Survive” underlines a deep commitment to education as a path to a better future. But chronically underfunded, and beset with challenges, this school – like so many others – is struggling to deliver the basics. Collapsed, and partially collapsed, ceilings around the school are commonplace and an ongoing hazard. Severe damage to the roof of the school’s kitchen is hampering its ability to deliver the basic government-funded food scheme, and a lack of suitable buildings means that classrooms are severely overcrowded – with up to 90 children often having to cram into a single room.

After these basic needs are addressed, there’s then a massive opportunity to revitalise the school with vibrant prints and signage – and to kit the children out with new uniforms imprinted with their school logo and motto.

Madisei Primary School

A hand-drawn Madisei Primary School sign, somewhat faded and with minimal colour, greets pupils, staff and visitors as they arrive at the school grounds. The sign provides an immediate example of how the addition of professionally printed signage could very quickly and radically enhance the perceptions of visitors, and the pride of teachers and pupils alike.

Beyond the school sign, vibrant prints for the classrooms and uniforms imprinted with the school logo, all have the potential to transform the look and feel of the school, but only when more fundamental issues are addressed. Dilapidated buildings, overcrowding and a lack of functional facilities make it extremely challenging for Madisei Primary School to deliver on their commitment to give their pupils an outstanding education and the best possible start in life.

With some focussed and consistent investment, the school could be transformed, and the life chances of the children radically improved.

Malekapane Primary School

Located near the centre of the province, Malekapane Primary School is rural and isolated even in comparison to other schools in the area. Pupils often finish their schooling never having seen a computer – let alone knowing how to use one. And when it comes to securing Government funding, out of sight, unfortunately, often means out of mind.

The school’s ageing infrastructure is increasingly inadequate for the approximately 100 students and nine staff who depend on the facilities. Temperatures in the poorly-insulated classrooms can get up over 40 °C, making learning almost impossible – while crumbling brickwork and plaster are unsightly and even hazardous.

The school’s kitchen is constructed with mud and stone, and is in very poor condition. Inside the building, a lack of basic furnishing and equipment means that gas cookers for preparing the children’s meals are just placed on the floor.

Pit toilets are also an ongoing reality at the school, despite the national Government promising for years to phase them out. Not only are the toilets often unsanitary, they can also be very unsafe, with reports of children falling into them relatively common.

When it comes to upkeep and maintenance, the school’s enterprising principal, Mrs Mphahlele, has taken matters into her own hands to the extent that she can. She’s been known to climb onto classroom roofs herself to carry out essential repairs, and she has commissioned bricks to be made on site to eventually rebuild the crumbling kitchen. Though with a critical lack of resources, and very tight budgets, even getting enough bricks made for the project looks to be a long way off.

Print for Good

“We love print, and we’re passionate about its potential to make a difference in peoples’ lives,” says Steve. “At FESPA Global Print Expo 2025 in Berlin, exhibitors are going to be printing thousands of sheets, on a variety of equipment, demonstrating the extraordinary potential of print. But don’t just print samples to end up in the recycling bin! Print something we can use; print something we can take to these Limpopo schools and make a real difference to children’s lives.”

He continues: “And don’t stop there. Talk to us about adopting one of these schools, and providing funding to begin to fix their basic infrastructure needs. Only then can we unleash the true power and potential of print to bring colour and vibrancy to these schools, and brighten the lives of the children who depend on them.”

For more information, or to get involved, visit: https://www.fespa.com/en/about/foundation

To watch a video about The FESPA Foundation’s first successful project, at Evane Intermediate School, click here.