The Don Mattera Resource Centre in Eldorado Park Extension Six were multiple award winners in the third Annual Ukhamba Greening schools competition this year.
The competition is open to learners in Grades 8 to 10, focusing on environmental issues and was hosted at the Soweto Equestrian Centre on October 12. The school principal, Eric Batchelor said that he was ecstatic that his learners did so well.
He said, “The learners received top honours in the category of green school as well as art from waste and they were placed second for the video presentation on the state of the environment of their school.
Don Mattera Centre scoops multiple awards.
“It makes me so proud to be a part of the school and Eldorado Park as a whole, my learners received these awards on the same day the MEGA rally was hosted. What a coincidence, Eldorado Park is already great.”
According to Batchelor, a special acknowledgement was made to teacher Collin Nzima. He said that Mzwakhe Nhlapo, who was the organiser for Ukhamba said that they wanted to encourage schools to go green by creating food gardens, landscaping and water conservation as well as introducing energy-saving measures.
“I am proud of my learners being designated as the Green Ambassadors for the Gauteng province. We are reaping the rewards of planting positive seeds, nurturing them and allowing time for growth. We encourage participation in gardening from community members.
“October 16 was World Food Day and as a school, we believe that you cannot go hungry when you know how to develop a garden. In 2019, we will be training residents and schools on how to develop and maintain a garden. We plan to roll-out our mobile food kitchen with sponsorship from Woolworths, feeding people from what we harvest,” said Nzima.
Batchelor said that he appreciated the support from local NGOs and individuals at the presentation of the awards.
“As a community, we need to reshape how our stories are told We need to support all initiatives which seek to plant seeds of hope and avoid being active in the ‘drag-me-down’ syndrome. There are many NGO’s , NPO’s and individuals doing sterling work in our community whose deeds go unreported,” he said.
Follow Us Here:
Catch the latest news by visiting our other platforms:
