BACKGROUND TO OUR PROJECT

Background to Project:

In August 2023 our club committed to support Newclare Primary School in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. The school was established in 1917 by Founders Memorial Congregational Church and was known as Newclare Colored school. It once had the reputation of being the biggest school in South Africa, consisting of 84 teachers and approximately 3,600 pupils. 

It originated as a two-storey building made of corrugated iron with 10 classrooms. The office block was made of brick and is still in use today. The school population was later divided and new smaller and independent schools were formed. Today Newclare has 28 teachers and approximately 1200 learners (source: school website) so it is still a sizeable school.

https://newclareprimaryschool.co.za/#

Maureen Mesimela, a teacher and our main contact at the school, gave us some background to some of the serious issues facing the school, its staff and its learners: 

"Newclare is an area plagued by gangsterism with gang fighting so out of control that the police minister deployed extra policing in the area. Our school in particular had a parent shot outside in the street while waiting for his daughter, and a learner was shot together with her aunt right after fetching her term report from the school. Sadly, the aunt died and the learner, now in grade 8, still suffers the effects of her horrific injuries.  

Children in the area are accompanied to school daily by parents of whom many of them are unemployed. Unemployment is rife and many children depend on grandparents pensions. Children don't have the basic stationery; the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) provides books, textbooks and stationery. Economic situations at home causes loss of said stationery within days.  

Staff at the school are always managing to get sponsors to help out with the poorest children to provide them with shoes and sometimes uniforms.  The school has approximately 1100 children from grades R to 7. Class sizes range from 30 to 47. Two meals are provided daily through the National Feeding Scheme. Children get porridge in the morning and a cooked meal for lunch; in many cases the only healthy meal they receive each day.

At present the school is trying to bring about a revival of sorts. Children are now able to play chess and our school has won all their matches except for one. One learner in grade 6 participated regionally as well. There is also netball and soccer in which kids do well, netball won all their games. There's a junior and senior choir and I have started an art club. The children are excited and the teachers are enjoying the positive attitude." 

Now, our library is going through it's own makeover. It has been in existence for the last eleven years, since a volunteer helped get it up and running. At present we are revamping the library; a coat of paint, a mural, and replenishing books.  I am painting the mural from next week and during school holidays, and children from the Art Club will help me. Kids have been taking out books to read which, of course, is great. Unfortunately though as a school we cannot keep up with supplying new books and the many empty shelves show that we are in need of more.  

There are, of course, many other things where we need assistance - shelves in classes, painting classrooms, fixing toilets etc. We are tackling things one step at a time." The club was immediately able to send £1128; funds which our club had previously raised and ring-fenced for another school in the Eastern Cape of South Africa which sadly was closed by the Education Department as around 90% of its learners did not return after the COVID Pandemic. 

Our initial donation converted to 26,800 South African Rand which has helped Newclare to progress the work on this much needed educational facility. 

On 24 October, Maureen emailed us to say, "The big reveal of our revamped library is next week. We are almost there. We are super excited to show off our efforts and so so grateful to you and Rotary for helping us." 

This is great news showing how our support has enriched the lives of the children by helping to improve their learning environment. We look forward very much to seeing the photographs of the completed work. Well Done Newclare!