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The Department of Social Development handed over donations to two Buffalo City Metro (BCM) communities on Friday.
The donations included a mobile office, a library, and solar-powered water pumps and tanks from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, MTN and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency.
Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, did the official handover of the mobile office to the Ihlumelo Foundation, a youth organisation based in Duncan Village providing a safe, enabling and stimulating environment for learners after school.
The Foundation’s Luthando Lucas:
“In 2014 we found that there were a lot of high school dropouts and Eastern Cape was the most underperforming province with high illiteracy– we looked at this and thought, we could become the mentors we have always wanted.”
They assist learners with school projects and homework and provide them with a meal before home time.
“Since we started the foundation, we partnered up Walter Sisulu and Fort Hare University students and have taken township and rural schools with low matric pass rates to the 90s and even 100%.”
The National Development Agency (NDA) also donated a big cheque to Isithembiso Multi-Purpose Organisation, a local NPO to support its women-led agricultural and sustainable livelihood projects.
The agency’s chairperson, Nozabelo Bengu, said this outreach programme was a template for the implementation of the NDA’s turnaround strategy, to facilitate the active participation of communities aimed at building sustainable livelihoods, families, and communities.
