Happiness delivered
DIEPSLOOT – About 13 000 children from Diepsloot got a very special delivery on 14 November when the 'Delivering Happiness Event to Diepsloot' for 2019 took place.
The children of Diepsloot got a very special delivery from Steyn City recently – the gift of happiness.
The eighth annual Delivering Happiness to Diepsloot event took place on 14 November when volunteers, sponsors and the media visited Muzomuhle Primary School in Diepsloot as their first stop to deliver about 13 000 school bags to children at seven different primary schools in the informal settlement. The donations included a stationery pack that the children can use in the new year, some sweet treats, a water bottle and the bag itself which had a special surprise – it contained an integrated poncho so that wearers can cover up when it starts to rain.
“We started this project back in 2011 because we asked ourselves what we could do at the end of the year to make a difference,” said Giuseppe Plumari, the chief executive officer for Steyn City Properties. “As we’re so close to Diepsloot, we decided that we wanted to make a difference in our own community. Delivering happiness to Diepsloot is exactly that, we want to put a smile on the children’s faces.
“These donations are not going to alter their lives but it is going to show these children that people care about them, and that really can make a difference.”
Plumari added that Steyn City had also supported the informal settlement by creating a labour desk in the area that had helped about 20 000 people who live there get jobs in fields such as construction.
He, along with employees of companies that sponsored the bags (including Bidvest and the Steyn City Foundation), and dozens of volunteers who worked to distribute the bags visited the school first thing in the morning, where a special event was held to celebrate the handover of about 2 000 bags to the Grade 1 to 7 children. Auto and General, who has supported the initiative since its inception, gave a cash donation along with 12 000 bottles that were included inside the bags.
Besides speeches from organisers, the school choir gave a special musical performance and soccer players Mark Williams, Brian Baloyi and Shaun Bartlett were present as well.
To help distribute the bags, 25 Grade 4s of the Steyn City School and their teachers also attended, and the children got a chance to hand over the bags to the Diepsloot children.
“I hope today makes our children aware of community work,” said Brian Mitchell, the headmaster of Steyn City School. “I hope that they learn that we all need to serve the wider community and have the responsibility in life to deal with the injustice and to help address inequality in this country.”
After the official event at Muzomuhle Primary School concluded, the Steyn City volunteers continued to distribute the rest of the donations to another six schools in the informal settlement.
Details: www.pledgeapair.co.za
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