Give the Gift of Dignity to A South African Child

In the first term of 2025 we managed to visit eight schools and provided and fitted uniforms 25 Uniforms at each school. Zinhle has once again made a huge impact in helping things run efficiently and communication remains smooth and open with the schools that we work with. 

We continue to visit schools as funds come in to pay for the uniforms. We have incorporated Pass the Panties into our uniform distribution, having seen that the children often have no undies at all or simply rags hanging from elastic.  Pass the Panties obtains end of run material from corporate donors at no charge and pays community members at Embo Craft to manufacture panties and underwear.  Thus the community economy is boosted and we can provide more underwear with the funds raised.  Pass the Panties gives popular talks to privileged schools, encouraging the children to donate their good, used underwear, to help in packing and preparing uniforms and underwear for those less fortunate than themselves, and in acccompanying the Schools Fund to help in distributing and fitting those uniforms within underprivileged schools.

Wonderful things happen out of such partnerships!  One twelve year old child was shocked, not only that the children she helped didn't have underwear, but that the school didn't have a jungle gym!  She took the initiative and contacted a private primary school which was replacing its jungle gym.  They agreed to donate the old jungle gym to the school she had visited.  The HABandBF Schools Team organised transportation and a builder to erect the equipment safely.  

The first school that we visited this year was Ukusakwabasha in the KwaNyuswa Valley, and it was our first time visiting this school. Whilst situated not too far into the valley itself, the road to access the school is a dirt road and the weather hugely affects whether the school is accessible or not. We were so impressed on arrival at this small school, loved their neat and organized school campus and were impressed with their well-mannered children. As always we cannot but note how much quieter and usually well run, the smaller schools are, in our communities.

In the April school holidays, Caitlyn hosted 26 senior primary St Mary’s girls who were in need of community service hours, at her home. These girls helped us pack underwear for an upcoming school visits. They also made over 60 cards for the students that we would be seeing the following day at Gwadu Zenex Primary School. A few of these St Mary’s learners, along with two Highbury boys, came with us to Gwadu Primary the following day to fit school uniforms and supply underwear for all JP girls at this school. This was a wonderful experience for the outside learners and their parents too. We loved watching the St Mary’s grade 7 girls taking on the responsibility to help dress the younger Gwadu girls into their new school tracksuits, and give us the relevant feedback. The female Gwadu learners also so appreciated the cards that the St Mary’s girls had made for them, and little huddles were formed with a mixture of kids from both communities, reading together.

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