Cape Town - GrandWest Casino has taken extra steps to helping children in impoverished communities by providing basic school learning tools to schools affected by poor socio-economic hardships.
This is the next step in their previous partnerships with these schools in efforts to improve the lives of those living in the communities.
Elnor Primary School in Elsies River (a non-fee paying school), Riverton Primary School in Bishop Lavis and Bellville South Secondary School, which serves communities such as Delft, Philippi, Langa, Khayelitsha and Mfuleni, all received stationery packs of over R900 000.
Each school’s packs were packaged differently according to learners’ needs.
Elnor received 375 packs valued at over R180 000. They also received over R540 000 worth of stationery packs for learners from grades 4-7, where each of those learners also got school shoes, socks and tracksuits as well.
GrandWest first partnered with the school in 2021 with the donation of a container library.
Riverton Primary School received 265 packs to the value of nearly R150 000, predominantly for foundation phase pupils in grades 0-3. The primary school stationery packs include crayons, khokis, bright colour pens, colour pads, paint and paint brushes and flip files too.
GrandWest’s previous partnerships included donating a fully-kitted container kitchen and repainting of the school’s classrooms.
The Bellville South Secondary School goes a long way to serve underprivileged kids in surrounding areas. GrandWest donated over 500 stationery packs to the value of nearly R30 000. These packs included pens, pencils, erasers, rulers and examination pads.
A previous collaboration included the donation of data projectors and a sanitary pad drive for female learners.
The initiative has gone a long way to helping these schools. GrandWest general manager, Mervyn Naidoo, said that the stationery packs were just a start to help the children start the academic year on easier grounds.
“Many of the children at these schools come from families who struggle to pay fees let alone provide them with the basic school essentials.
“The pandemic and lockdown has exacerbated their situation tenfold so every pen and pencil they receive makes an enormous difference to them. These stationery packs are basic but essential to the success of the youngsters during the 2022 academic year.
GrandWest has not only made schooling easier, but has also strived to make the community space a better place for young children to grow up. The initiative has already gone a long way to helping so many young students and will hope to inspire many more in the future.