At the end of March 2020, South Africans were all told to stay at home and a national lockdown was implemented. The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to educational institutions as well as our economy. We have been very lucky with all our incredible staff, who have worked so hard to ensure that the children were looked after and supported.
We had an exciting start to the year as the school expansion project was completed at the end of 2019 and the children and staff have been loving the new phenomenal space. This extra space has been a huge blessing with the reopening of the school as many strict social distancing protocols must be adhered to.
We believe that it is only onwards and upwards as we start to come to terms with the ‘new normal’. Change is never easy, but we will get through this together.
Thembelihle partnered with Angels Care Centre to send out a total of 960 family food parcels. Each Thembelihle family received a food parcel three times during the time school was closed. This was to ensure that our children were still receiving food as most families either do not have jobs or have lost their jobs.
Through Angels Care Centre daily food parcels were/are handed out to 350 children in Shiyas informal settlement, where many of our Thembelihle children reside. The food parcels also created an avenue for the school to send out work booklets to every child. As most of our children live in households without access to electricity, running water or services, online teaching was not an option.
These workbooks gave the children creative ways to stay busy and to hopefully keep them up to speed.