The project 2024: 5 elementary schools in the Eastern Cape
This year, the Africa Runners are raising funds to build five elementary schools in the Eastern Cape. The donations they collect will go, among other things, towards correcting some severe structural problems which have developed over the years at the buildings at Bhongolethu Primary School, Lonwabo Primary School, Ixhadi Labantwana Primary School, Sada Primary School and Sibuyele Primary School. In addition, the funds raised will be put towards upgrading the didactic and teaching quality at these school, especially the fundamentals of teaching children how to read and write.
Specifically, this is where your donations will go:
👉 Repair the roofs at all of the schools so that all of the classrooms can be used again
👉 Install new water tanks, pipes and pumps to ensure a reliable water supply
👉 Build additional toilets
👉 Set up a school library to get children enthusiastic about reading
👉 Provide continuing education for teachers to assist them in comprehensively teaching literacy
Why these schools in particular?
These five elementary schools all feed into Ekuphumleni Secondary School: many children will end up attending this secondary school, which was originally designed to accommodate 800 students but will soon have 1400. Our fundraising efforts in 2019 focused on Ekuphumleni Secondary School: the goal was to support projects such as adding new classrooms. As a result, in 2022 the school successfully opened six additional classrooms as well as home-economics rooms equipped with stoves and cooking utensils; it also improved its water supply.
And by the way: for quite some time now, the students at Ekuphumleni have graduated with above-average grades each year. In 2023 the school even appeared on television as a result.
The Samara Foundation is our contact partner on site. For years now we have been working closely and successfully with Louisa Feiter, the founder and director of the Samara Foundation. Louisa coordinated with us to select the five schools for our 2024 project. She has strong ties to these schools and their administration, and she can realistically assess their needs, formulate them clearly and help in organizing the implementation of this work.
Living in Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape is a province in the southeast of the republic of South Africa; it is a low-income region with rural settlements. There are very few ways to make a living there, which is why adults often have to move to Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg and leave their children to be raised by their grandmothers. We want to open up the prospect of giving young people here a proper education: having solid schooling can offer them a means of breaking out of the cycle of poverty.