Zenzeleni may soon be the primary school of choice for Alex parents if it maintains the recent improvements sponsored by the financial giant, Standard Bank.
The support from the bank’s staff volunteer programme and facilitated by its service provider Rak Events, is dubbed: Adopt A School. It forms part of a three-year school literacy improvement programme implemented nationwide in partnership with the Departments of Education and Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation.
Facilitator Angel Mgayo said the initiative equips schools with fully furnished libraries and the on-going partnership aims to maintain the quality of improvement and add other support over time. “A needs-based criteria is applied to select the beneficiary schools,” she explained.
“It targets the foundation level which is the critical entry point to learning and enlightenment of young custodians of the country.”
Leading the bank’s volunteers from its Joburg head office, Mgayo said the Zenzeleni library will cultivate a love for reading in the children and curb illiteracy, referring to research findings indicating that 82 per cent of Grade 4 learners can’t read and comprehend at their grade level. “They will learn how to respect, handle and protect books from an early age and sustain their interest in reading as they transition into their IT-driven youth phase.”
The enthusiastic staff worked from morning to afternoon and left behind a colourfully furnished library to be stocked with an assortment of fiction, non-fiction and set books. The young one will be attracted to its aesthetic look with mirror boards, artwork, shelves, painted tyres for chairs, ottomans and cushions all produced on the day. “It’s our way of giving back to our current and future clients and, a fulfilment of the bank’s commitment to national education,” staff member Jeff Rathebe said.
Their arduous commitment to the task was reflected in groups, as they cut cloth for the cushions, painted the shelves and tyres, painted and nailed the artwork on the walls. The cherry on top was author, artist and storyteller Zanele Ndlovu who kept the foundation-level children spellbound with playful edutainment, stories, pictorial books and sounds from the traditional love-bow instruments she owes for her fame.
According to Mgayo, they aim to go to more schools, leaving behind the volunteers’ footprint through standard library facilities made of uniquely painted tetras shelving, wall murals, seats made of colourful tyres and pallet wood and a worktop.
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