Community organisations showed that teamwork makes the dream work through collaboration to help underprivileged learners.
Norwood, Orange Grove and Houghton Community Action Network (Noah Can), Norwood police social crime prevention unit, Norwood Community Police Forum, Lifeline Johannesburg and Lower Houghton Ratepayers Association joined forces to help learners in need.
The collaboration came about when Norwood police and Lifeline were approached by H. A. Jack School for assistance with learners from disadvantaged families.
Norwood police then contacted Emily Wellman of Noah Can to find out if they could assist. The school provided a list of 84 learners, some of who were said to attend school in torn and badly fitting clothes and even barefoot.
Noah Can immediately start a community collection to gather children’s clothing to donate to the identified learners.
“We knew though that if the children did not have the basics like appropriate clothing, they would also not have expensive stationery which is needed in order to participate in their academic studies. We donated 84 stationary packs that contained an A4 notepad, a pack of crayons, two pencils, two black pens, two erasers and a ruler,” said Wellman.
Lower Houghton Ratepayers Association donated 140 packs of sanitary pads which were given to the learners who currently needed them.
The items were distributed to the learners on 8 June.
Community members who would like to make donations to any initiatives currently being run by Noah Can can make contact with Emily Wellman at ward73noah@gmail.com or on 072 236 2712.
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