Donald celebrates his birthday, gives back to community

The project started in 2010 where he decided to give back to the community of Skoonplaas Informal Settlement by providing school supplies to impoverished children.

“I decided I’m no longer going to celebrate my birthday.

“Whatever I was spending, I needed to give it to the community.

“I started with five pairs of school shoes.

“Looking at children here in Skoonplaas, I saw children with no school shoes on, meanwhile I was sitting at home cutting a big cake for my birthday.

“I started going to the schools and interviewing all the teachers, asking them about the welfare of certain children and that kept me going.”

This is the eighth year of the project and it has grown to provide school uniforms for over 75 children.

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Although Sekgobela started the project on his own, he no longer does everything himself.

“It has become a community project where the teachers help me, my friends help me organise all the uniforms and some people even volunteer to prepare food for the children on the day.

“The company I work for also helps me with certain supplies.”

To qualify for the programme, children must reside locally and they have to bring their school reports to show that they are attending school and are progressing.

The children range from grade one to grade nine learners.

The company I work for also helps me with certain supplies.

Parents on the day were delighted to receive school uniforms for their children.

Judith Mnikina, mother of a grade four learner says: “I feel so happy because I’m unemployed. I wish I could do things for my children but I’ve got no power. I hope God blesses Donald and may he continue with others.”

Other parents shared similar sentiments and added how helpful this project was to them because school uniforms can get expensive if they have more than one school going child.

Sekgobela hopes to expand this project to help even more children in future.