West Ridge volunteers making a difference
School assignment turns out to be fun
“Learners often find that school assignments turn out to be much more enjoyable than they had expected,” said Hilde Ebersohn, West Ridge High’s spokesperson.
And for seven of the school’s Grade 9-learners, this was absolutely true. As part of their Life Orientation syllabus, they were given an assignment where they had to identify a Non-profit Organisation (NPO) to spend some of their time with and make a difference. According to the assignment, they had to volunteer at least 10 hours of their time at their chosen organisation.
Aneesa Otto, Babazile Khumalo, Nandi Mopeloa, Nkatheko Mafu, Vuyelwa Ndlovu, Tumisang Mahlo and Musa Rikhotso had some difficulty in selecting the right NPO, but eventually, they came across the perfect organisation to help.
Tumisang said, “We thought about helping out at an orphanage, but I called the organisations in our area and had no luck. My aunt told me about the Hamerkop Bird Sanctuary, and offered to contact André Brink, and ask him if we could volunteer there. He agreed, and on 27 August, we spent six hours at the sanctuary, cleaning up. We collected seven bags full of trash.”
They spent the remaining hours helping out at the Child Welfare South Africa Roodepoort offices, where they cleaned the offices and organised the storerooms.
Aneesa said that she felt accomplished, because she managed to give something back to the community. “I always thought you could only give back by donating money, bu now I realise you can do it in other ways as well,” she said with a smile.
The whole group was in agreement that the opportunity to be able to give back to the environment and community by volunteering their time, made them feel honoured and – for once – they did not only think about themselves. “It felt good to do something that had an impact on the community, it made my heart feel good,” Tumisang said.
They also said that working at the sanctuary was very educational, as they saw a lot of the birds and learned more about them as they were going along. The group realised that you can make a difference, even if your contribution feels small.
André Brink, from the sanctuary, thanked the learners for their contribution and time. “The Hamerkop Bird Sanctuary is the flagship wetland and bird sanctuary for Gauteng. Thank you for your unselfish effort in helping to keep it that way,” he said.
Hilde Ebersohn, the school’s spokesperson said, “Our philosophy is to reach for a dynamic future, and we achieve that by not only focusing on academics, but also creating as many opportunities as possible for the learners to find their passions. We motivate them through various extra- and co-curricular activities to reach for their dreams,” Hilde concluded.
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