Cape Town - A group of 260 volunteers from the UK, Ireland and the US are volunteering their services this week to give a Masiphumelele school a transformation.
Ukhanyo Primary School is the recipient of the 2015 Cape Town school building blitz of Mellon Educate, the international volunteer-based charity.
The charity’s Deborah Morris said the project would include 12 classrooms, which would either be build from scratch, “or would receive serious renovations”.
The school accommodated about 1 600 children.
A two-year programme aimed at “permanently improved school results” would also be implemented at Ukhanyo. Morris said a group of education experts would provide mentoring to the school’s teachers.
Volunteer Jeremy Suddards, who works for a large corporation in the UK, said he had been travelling to South Africa on holiday and for business for nearly 10 years and saw the challenges that many face.
“I heard about Mellon Educate and thought it was the perfect vehicle to get involved with.”
He brought along 17 volunteers from his company, while his nephew will also be participating in the build.
Businesswoman Maeve Macdonald of London, who is married to a South African, said this week’s building blitz had been her first but she and her husband were planning to sign up every year.
She said she had no building experience and had an aching body after the first day, but believed strongly in the cause: “I believe in the power of education.”
Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said: “We are so pleased to be working with Mellon Educate. We would especially like to thank them and all the volunteers who have travelled to South Africa for the contribution to Ukhanyo Primary and to the project as a whole.”
Philanthropist Niall Mellon founded the Niall Mellon Township Trust in 2002, through which thousands of houses for the poor were built, and Mellon Educate was launched in 2013.
Cape Argus
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