New library for Meriting informal settlement

The Winnie Mabaso Foundation began 12 years ago with the aim to support vulnerable and orphaned children in South Africa.

November 3, 2016

SHERNOVIA REDDY 1 minute read

WASTE NOT: The two containers that were converted into a pre-school and a library.

THE BRITISH High Commissioner to South Africa is to officially open a new library at the Meriting Squatter Camp (close to Grasmere Tollgate on N1) on November 1.

Dame Judith Macgregor will be officiating in the High Commissioner capacity, as a guest of the Winnie Mabaso Foundation – which began 12 years ago with the aim to support vulnerable and orphaned children in South Africa.

The charity was founded by Lisa Ashton, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), a former programme maker with BBC Television in the UK; following a filming trip to South Africa.

The organisation has a home for girls in mid-Ennerdale, South of Johannesburg and runs several projects at local squatter camps and informal settlements. These include: a pre-school; a homework club; school holiday clubs; granny club and choir; veggie garden programme (there are almost 50 gardens); a children’s play area (to encourage them to stay off the landfill sites); provision of school uniforms and shoes; provision of re-usable sanitary towels; mobile library; health workshops (including sexual health and well-being, plus cardiac care) and new shacks.

The Winnie Mabaso Foundation has recently received two shipping containers as a gift; which have been converted into a pre-school and a library at the desperately poor Meriting squatter camp. Families live in shacks and there is no power, plus limited water and sanitation at Meriting.

The library will offer the community the opportunity to learn how to read and it’s hoped, to fall in love with literature; and to be a key turning point in helping children grow in education.

For further information on this subject, contact Lisa Ashton, MBE, on winniemabaso@hotmail.co.uk or Helga Lewis, Manager of The Winnie Mabaso Foundation, on 071 291 1035.

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