School shoes for 1 000 is Father Donald’s target
The plight of poor children worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in the Polokwane diocese has motivated a local Catholic priest to think out of the box.
Rev Fr Donald Mabitsela has initiated a campaign to secure school shoes to at least 1 000 learners in and around the city.
The campaign aims to reach the target of 1 000 pairs before the schools reopen for the 2021 academic year. At the moment, Mabitsela has managed to reach the halfway mark.
Speaking to Polokwane Observer, he said he realised that the majority of destitute parents had lost their income, or their income has decreased due to the pandemic.
“The situation has brought misery to many families and communities,” he said.
Mabitsela said as a priest in the rural mission of Siloe, south of Polokwane, he witnessed the suffering brought by Covid-19. “Most people had lost their jobs. These are rural people, with the majority of the people being breadwinners the plight of the poor has increased simultaneously.”
“As a religious leader in my community, I thought a contribution one could make is to give school shoes to the learners so that their spirits can be lifted. We could not sit back and watch children being demotivated by their family conditions. This pandemic will hopefully be with us temporarily but education will last forever. It’s a lifetime thing for these children. I therefore couldn’t think of the pain of losing school days because some of them don’t have shoes,” he said.
He asked parishioners and non-parishioners to join the campaign and bring a smile to the deserving children. He hopes to make the campaign a regular event, helping more needy children.
Anybody interested in donating can contact Mabitsela on 078 621 4424.
