Give the Gift of Dignity to A South African Child

We've had the summer break and schools have been back for a couple of weeks now.  We're looking forward to starting off with delivering uniforms to Vusamusi, Laboure and Inkasimulu primary schools next week!

Laboure Primary is the school where our Tertiary Fund alumni now works - see the report on our other project 'Give Disadvantaged South Africans Hope and A Future'.

Last year, thanks to donations such as yours, we bought, stored, packed and helped +-300 children with new uniforms. 

Caitlyn and her gogo (isiZulu for Grandmother) Rosemary do this work voluntarily, traveling through the rural areas of the Valley of 1000 Hills around Hillcrest on heavily pot-holed and or dirt roads to remote under-privileged schools which Rosemary has been working with for over 20 years now and where good trusting friendships have been made with many of the teachers and school leadership.  

Caitlyn and Rosemary often travel with Caitlyn's new arrival who is now 7 months old.  During the holidays the older 2 siblings join in - helping children their own age and younger to change from what they were wearing into the new clothes.  Often Sarah or Noah give their mum or great grandmother a heads up that they're going to find somewhere more private for the particular child they're helping - because the child has no undies.  Happily undies are included in the uniform packs through the Pass the Panties initiative. 

Here's some words from Caitlyn herself:

2025 was a smooth and happy year for the school fund. We started the year with the help of Zinhle and thus got to work quickly and efficiently. With more help, we opted to submit multiple school uniform orders at once to the Uniform shop, which was not always possible when we were packing the uniforms on our own. Having an assistant has meant that packing the uniforms into individual labeled bags is seamless and we can reach more children more quickly. The help of a translator has also been gold, as it has allowed for our school visits to run smoothly. We’ve seen that far more kids swop trouser/skirt sizes if incorrect, with each other, now that language barriers are no longer an issue - this has made our returns easier too!  

One particular story that stands out above the rest was when we visited a school that my Gogo, Rosie, has been working with for more than 20 years. The school is currently undergoing renovations, which is wonderful for them, but meant that we were crammed into a small Container type room for fittings. We were dressing the younger kids when we noticed that one of the older, grade 7, boys had disappeared with his packet including his new uniform. On enquiring where he was, the staff pointed out that he had hidden behind a small steel bookshelf to get dressed there. I asked if everything was okay and the teacher shared that he was simply hiding because he did not own underwear. Both my Gogo and I were tearful as we quickly shared that there was underwear included in his uniform bag, all ready for him to put on.

A moment that imprinted on my heart was when, very late in the year, my Gogo and I made our way out to a more rural school together. We were driving down a dusty road that was not in a good condition, approaching a very rundown school that we had not visited before, when suddenly my 82 year-old Grandmother, who is quietly spoken, said “I can’t explain it, I look around here and I simply love this all and the work that we do.” I responded with a “me too!!“ On arriving at the school, every single uniform fitted the kids and they were over the moon to receive their new uniforms. 

We feel incredibly privileged to do the work that we get to do together.

Links:

• Uniforms, Pads, Panties and Pride!
• Delivering uniforms to Umgeni Primary School

Over the past year we have had the immense privilege and joy of gifting and fitting more than 300 children in 25 schools into new school uniforms and underwear.  It is difficult to articulate the depth of joy that we get to experience on our visits to our Valley schools when delivering and fitting uniforms. Whilst our greatest enjoyment comes from our Junior primary school aged children, the greatest impact that we experienced this past year was a recent visit to a High School. The state of these learners’ uniforms was appalling and whilst we only reached a small few (25 learners) with uniforms, we were keenly aware of the impact of these uniforms to keep them in school.

The Pass The Panties brand achieves a wonderful buy in and support from local privileged and private schoolchildren who get involved in donating, packing and distributing the underwear. The children and their parents thus start to appreciate the joy of giving, as well as seeing for themselves the privilege of their educational facilities.

Many of the schools we visit are deeply rural and sometimes inaccessible if there has been bad weather.  One school is only reached by a single road which crosses rivers 7 times and the bridges always become flooded when it rains heavily.

When a private school in Hillcrest was replacing its' jungle gym earlier in the year our Schools Fund team arranged to have the old equipment installed in two disadvantaged primary schools which had enough land for the installation and whose teachers and leaders were felt to be of the necessary calibre to ensure the safety of the children who had never used such equipment before. 

It is now nearly the end of this school year so distrubution of uniforms has slowed down considerably.  Embocraft are busy making hundreds if not thousands of pairs of underwear thanks to a large donation of material from a local company, and we are hoping for donations to arrive ready for us to start ordering uniforms for the new school year in January.

Links:

• Pass The Panties at Mnamatha Primary School
• Uniforms At Thabela high School

• Thank You From Thabela High School September 2025 (PDF)