Thuto-Lesedi Secondary School (TLSS) learners received toiletry donations from Waltham Forest Thuso in South Africa (WFTSA). At the same time, they celebrated the 25-years of the partnership between the school and the sponsor, at Rockville Extension Eight, Vosloorus, on May 18.
WFTSA aims to fund destitute children attending school. Their partnership came into effect post-apartheid.
The school SMT awarded the founding member of WFTSA Mmapule Tladi-Small a certificate of recognition.
Tladi-Small expressed her gratitude, saying the only payback they expected is seeing young people progress and the country flourish.
The organisation was established to counteract the injustices of apartheid, focusing on educating black children.
She shared how the organisation came about, its purpose and how its goals changed over time to address issues affecting many South Africans during apartheid.
“It all started in our struggle for freedom. In that struggle, some of us had to leave the country. A man called Trevor Huddleston was one of many white people that opposed apartheid policies.
“What happened to them is that some were expelled while others like me had to escape, when we got to the United Kingdom (UK) I was a member of the ANC,” said Tladi-Small.
She said in 1959 they formed the Anti-Apartheid Movement because although the ANC and other liberation movements were informing the world about the injustices, they campaigned to have justice, however, people were paying lip service saying ANC is a bad thing because they had businesses
“But when we set up the AAM it campaigned, lobbied and worked with the ANC, it became one of the most significant political movements internationally.
“With the pressure that was coming from various liberation movements, the European countries had to impose sanctions on SA.”
She said during that time sanctions collapsed the SA economy as a result after the country had gained its freedom in 1994, they had to help rebuild the country with the slogan help SA rip the fruits of freedom. As a result, they had to change AAM’s name to Action for Southern Africa (ASA).
Tladi-Small said when she came back to SA after a long time she was taken to Vosloorus to visit several schools.
“Some of the schools I went to were not encouraging because the attitude and the atmosphere did not install education or give the children who were coming to the school a vision for the future.
“Until someone took me to a school they thought I would consider, they brought me to this school (Thuto-Lesedi) it was impressive. What I saw was a school that had a vision, goals and a school that valued its young people,” said Tladi-Small.
She said over the years they had to set up structures through their organization to support learners with school fees and food, however, this was destructed by Covid-19, which caused them to lose sponsors.
The TLSS acting principal Nyiko Manganyi said they were not around when the partnership started, however, the efforts are evident.
“As a school, we would like to thank you for choosing us from many schools that are around Gauteng and South Africa at large,” said Manganyi.
He said the money the school receive from the WFTSA charity is used to support destitute learners that have been identified.
The school’s SGB chairperson Moses Gama said as the SGB they will continue to support the school and identify issues that need to be resolved.
Tladi-Small said destitute learners will also receive food hampers, however, child-headed families will be considered first followed by those from the poorest families.
