The Martindale Farm School, one of the poorest schools in Makana, received a generous donation of food and clothing from the 6 SAI Battalion last Wednesday.
The Martindale Farm School, one of the poorest schools in Makana, received a generous donation of food and clothing from the 6 SAI Battalion last Wednesday.
The donation was presented by Chaplain Ngesi on behalf of the Battalion. Attendance on the day of the presentation was poor as it was pay day and most of the children had gone to town with their parents. Ngesi urged the remaining parents to keep their children in school and spoke directly to the few children who were there, reminding them that ex-president Nelson Mandela had gone from herding cattle in a village to becoming one of the most well-known people in the world.
The school is about 20km outside of Grahamstown on the Port Alfred road, and suffers from many of the problems that plague rural schools across the country such as poor roads, dilapidated buildings and facilities, lack of involvement of parents and little support from the community. Chairperson of the school's governing body Mr Hadman Hanabe welcomed the donation from the army. "I'm really happy that we got donations from people we didn't know and by these donations we hopefully get to build a relationship with them," he said.
He also made special mention of Mrs Nonam Mcekana a teacher at the school for past six years whose dedication and efforts had reaped such benefits for the school. “They were many other teachers before her but we have not seen them bring in donations from outside. She has brought so much to the school.”
