The Redhill family stepped up to the plate to give back to the community.
Learners from the school’s arts and culture committee came together to host a food drive for the Dlala Nje Foundation, an organisation that runs a community centre in the Ponte City Apartments for children living in the inner city area.
The foundation currently supports children from more than 1 400 families. Head of the committee, Rachel Hertz, spearheaded the initiative. According to Rachel, the school has partnered with Dlala Nje for over two years, forming a great relationship.
“Many of the families there have not benefitted from government social programs and food grants. I became very worried about the children who we have come to know and decided to launch a food drive to support them in this difficult time,” she said.
The call was sent out to the Redhill community to donate any food items that could contribute to the creation of food hampers.”So far, we have had an overwhelming response from our generous Redhill families and, in the first week, were able to collect sufficient food to feed 104 families,” said Rachel.
Niki Rayner from Dlala Nje added that its community remains extremely appreciative to Redhill. “Together, we delivered 104 parcels to 20 Dlala Nje Staff and 84 families living in Ponte. We also received a flurry of donations through our BackABuddy, we are so grateful!”
Rayner added that while everyone is still getting to grips with that the future will look like; there remains a sense of hope.”Distributing those parcels with my team that I haven’t seen in six weeks, to the kids we haven’t seen in equally as long, really reminded me that no matter what, we will adapt, adjust and find a way to power through this uncertainty together until we all figure it out and balance again,” said Rayner.
Redhill’s executive head, Joseph Gerassi, added the school remains immensely proud of the learner-led-and-managed initiative as well as how well the Redhill community responded to the call for donations.”‘Care’ is one of the school’s core values and we could not be more proud that our students are not just talking about caring for their wider community, but also demonstrating it in their day-to-day lives,” Gerassi said.
Donations can be dropped off with the security guards at the school gate in Summit Road before 4pm each Wednesday.
Details: info@redhill.co.za
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