Education, Nutrition, Health and Safety to 60 Kids

Warm greetings to all my dear friends

At last this year is drawing to a close. Recent weeks have brought many beautiful as well as less pleasant surprises.

Josia had to undergo quarantine for almost two weeks because his school recorded one positive Covid-19 case. Thank God he tested negative.

There were protests and demonstrations at Augusto’s school as the school was accused of racism. Of course the press blew up the story. Augusto commented that all this was actually not true, but due to the fact that elections were around the corner one political party had decided to hold a march in front of the school premises.

Once again there was a fire at Mammadu, but it was not serious: it was only the dry grass and a few tyres of the sports field that caught fire. As usual the fire brigade arrived late; Meme Dina, Meme Arisa and neighbours had already extinguished the fire.

In fact, the fire brigade is always late, also on election day. Mammadu was again used as a polling station. Unfortunately, one of huts in the shanty town on the hill caught fire, a gas bottle in it exploded and the mother sadly was not able to rescue her child. A real tragedy. Thank God there was no wind, otherwise the entire hill would have burnt down.

We will all be grandparents soon. One of our girls is pregnant, her baby being due in January. Yes, yes, I know she is still so young. When I heard about it, I could have strangled her, but what can one do!? We all still love her and just hope that the birth will go well and that she will continue her schooling. In this regard the Ministry of Education announced that 3300 learners fell pregnant during lockdown and that 27000 learners did not go back to school after the easing of the restrictions.

Our little ones of the pre-school received their reports and I hope that they will be able to enjoy a happy and healthy first year at school in 2021.

Our older ones organized a lovely Christmas play. Benjamin was a real treat as Father Christmas even though his costume, Made in China, fell to pieces almost immediately. Everyone was groomed and dressed in their best party outfits. Afterwards the boys grilled for us and we had cakes to celebrate Lukas’ and Javazas’ birthdays. 

This year we did not have our usual excursion, not because the reports weren’t good enough, but because we unfortunately did not have anybody to accompany us. It is simply impossible for one person only to look after so many kids. We however spent a whole day at the swimming pool instead and will make up for the excursion next year.

Our teenage girls attended a self-defence course against rape. Hopefully they will never have to apply this skill, but it is certainly better to be prepared. In fact, I believe that this should form part of the general school curriculum.

Thanks to the generous donations of Gondwana everyone received Christmas gifts this year.

On behalf of all of us at Mammadu I wish you a blessed Christmas, hopefully in the company of family, and a great start to the New Year.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND LOVE