Feel good Monday

AYO partners with the Human Nature Community Project to uplift schools in Paarl.

With the number of COVID-19 infections steadily decreasing, pupils from around the country are heading back to the classroom. While this may be a joyous occasion for many, children from Mbekweni area near Paarl, are apprehensive of the prospect. Winter is coming, but the pupils of Imboniselo Primary School, Langabuya Primary School and Mbekweni Primary School don’t even have school shoes to put on their feet. Stationery or even face masks are seen as luxuries that their families simply cannot afford. And their schools are solely dependent on scarce government funding and well-intentioned corporate donations.

The Human Nature Community Project has been raising funds and giving hope to such underfunded schools since the start of the COVID 19-pandemic. And last month, they knocked on AYO’s door for help. With the African philosophy of Ubuntu, “we are who we are through each other”, central to our core values, we couldn’t simply ignore their plea.

As the schools opened their doors to welcome hundreds of young learners back at the beginning of the second term, AYO was there, with gifts to put smiles on these anxious little faces and sparkle in their grateful eyes. Donations included face masks for safety, school shoes, stationery and monetary contribution towards infrastructure upgrades.

“It is heart-breaking to see such poverty right at our doorstep”, says Jeni Kostova, AYO Technology’s Group Executive: Marketing. “I am honoured and humbled to be part of this project and to be able to alleviate even a little bit of the pain that these stoic young children have to endure every day. Yet, I am in awe of their positivity, strength and determination. This is certainly not the last the community of Mbekweni will see from AYO.”