the welcoming committee
Last week we were back in Ratanda delivering more blankets to pre-school children and not too soon either, the cold is really here. The school,we went to, Ratanda Day Care, is run by Maria Dlamini who started it to take care of the many children in the informal settlement during the day. Parents who work pay R120.00 per month and Maria gets a subsidy of R4.50 per child. Each child is given 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks, leaving very little for anything else and yet Maria and her staff have managed to keep their school going and provide care and education for 250 children every day. Starting in temporary buildings ( now home to the kitchen and staff room), they have managed to build brick class rooms and are in the process of having an admin block built, but still have a long way to go. The classrooms have no ceilings so are not well insulated and so cold in the winter. The blankets we collected will go a long way to keeping the children warm.
When we arrived, there was a welcoming committee waiting at the gate to escort us in and then we were treated to a lovely concert put on by the children.
A huge thank you to The Land Cruiser Club and to Jo Jenkinson for collecting the majority of the blankets and to everyone else who so kindly made and sent blankets for these kids.
As promised, we put all the contributors names in a hat and the ColourSpun voucher was won by Mrs. I Hansen from Observatory.
I was so impressed by the efforts that Maria has made to care for these children that I'd like to help her make their environment better. They need ceilings in the class rooms, roofing materials, doors and windows for the new block, grass for the play ground.....
If anyone can help in any way or if you know someone who can, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with Maria.
happy faces
Jo, handing out blankets
