Eversfield Charity Fundraising Assists Diepsloot Township School
In 2020, our Lenten class coin collection raised funds for schools in the Diepsloot township in Johannesburg. After two years of delay due to the COVID pandemic, the Sawle family were finally able to visit the township of Diepsloot. It was an emotional visit for all the family who share their account of the trip and how everyone’s generous donations have been used.
A Sobering and Privileged Visit
Despite a riot in the township delaying our visit, we were able to visit Diepsloot. A sobering experience for both the children and adults! We actually visited 2 schools which were just a couple of minutes away from each other.
Leap School is a secondary school which seeks to find gifted children from the township. It provides an education and support to enable the children to move out of the township and onto university level education. We were greeted by the headmaster and the children showed us around. They were extremely proud of their school community and their achievements and gave us an impromptu performance of local songs which was very moving. The classrooms were basic but class sizes were unusually small for the townships. Their 'science lab' was a bench with 1 tap situated in the new library that they were trying to build.
We then went to Reshomile School. The poverty and conditions we witnessed were heart-breaking. Classes have 60 children and teachers struggle to provide for their own families. We observed them serve lunch which was essentially a scoop of maize-based mash.
We took food for about 180 of those children who were considered to be living in extreme poverty, some were orphans, and distributed additional food parcels. We also gifted around 30 of the old logo Eversfield School coats which Mabel and Stanley helped to distribute.
Having visited the Schools, it became apparent that the money raised through the Eversfield Lenten coin collection and the children's sponsored walk would be most effectively used at the Leap School and agreed that we would use the money to provide them with an interactive white board which will benefit a significant number of children.
It was an emotional visit for us all. We were particularly proud of how Stanley and Mabel behaved when we visited the schools, their enthusiasm to help give out the food and coats, and really take in how privileged they were to visit.
Thank you to all the Eversfield community for helping support the fundraising initiative.