Each pre-school received a toilet, kitchen, office, 2 classrooms, jungle gym and perimeter fencing
Date Launched
11 October 2022
Location
Ntlakwe & Mbhobheni,
Eastern Cape
No of children
57 & 26 children
Year started
1994 & 2012
Impact achieved
•This project will improve the learning facilities for more than 80 children enrolled at two pre-schools in the Eastern Cape
•Following the success of building new classrooms and kitchen facilities at Sikhona and Sunrise Educare Centres in Khayelitsha, well-known South African retailer PNA set its sights on building more facilities at two schools in the Eastern Cape, namely Ntlakwe Pre-school and Thandabantu Pre-school.
•This was achieved with the help of a fundraising campaign that was launched on Mandela Day, 18 July 2022. The “Rock Your Funky Socks” campaign was a fun and innovative way to create social awareness and to amplify the support that the company could provide to help develop schools and raise funds to support education.
•“Poor infrastructure, crowded classrooms and unhygienic sanitation continue to dog education outcomes, and decisive action and investment has to be taken in order to ensure every South African child has access to quality education” said Chantelle Fritz, PNA Marketing Manager. She added: “ We need to give every South African child a chance for a better future”.
•The “Rock Your Funky Socks Day” initiative saw just over 75,000 stickers sold, which PNA topped up to reach a final donation amount of R1,2 million.
•The new classrooms, kitchen and toilet facility have resulted in the safety and learning environment being significantly improved. To the children’s delight, they each received a bag filled with a series of books to take home, which had been donated by BookDash.
•The Principal of Thandabantu, Ms Nozuku Peter said: “We are so grateful to PNA and Breadline Africa for this new classroom. Our schooling conditions are so bad, our classroom is a mud hut with a tin roof. Our community simply did not have the money for a new classroom – so this is a wonderful gift to our teachers and children.”
•Long-term, the impact of this infrastructural support is hugely important. In order to qualify for registration as a pre-school (early childhood development) facility and to receive government funding, Ntlakwe and Thandabantu pre-schools are required to comply with infrastructure safety standards and other established regulatory norms. Infrastructure tends to be the largest stumbling block, due to the costs associated with building. The classrooms, kitchen and toilet facilities, funded by PNA, will help them on the path to registration and long-term sustainability.
•Media coverage:
•https://social-tv.co.za/retailer-pna-and-ngo-breadline-africa-build-5-new-ecds-across-south-africa/
