420 daycares rewarded for recycling Sasko bread plastic bags
The Siyasizana Daycare Project rewards participating daycare centres for collecting used bread bags.
In September 2015, Sasko launched its Siyasizana Daycare Project to provide local daycare centres with much-needed items for their crèches.
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Just over one year later, the programme has grown in leaps and bounds, with community members rallying to support daycare centres in their area.
The Siyasizana Daycare Project rewards participating daycare centres for collecting used bread bags. Rewards include mattresses, backpacks, carpets, chairs and even fridges or stoves for their schools.
This month over one million Sasko plastic bread bags were collected in Tembisa by 420 daycare centres.
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Ms Lungelwa Mnyamana, brand manager for Essential Foods: Bakeries at Sasko, said when the Siyasizana Daycare Project was launched in 2015, they had hoped members of the community would support the initiative and each other.
“The name Siyasizana is Zulu for ‘We are helping each other’, which is true to the ethos of the programme. When we launched it in 2015, the response was very positive. Earlier this year, we handed out 1 385 prizes to over 360 daycare centres.
“Today we are rewarding 420 daycare centres for collecting 1 011 011 bags since March this year. We will be handing out 3 191 prizes in Tembisa,” added Ms Mnyamana.
By simply collecting discarded or used bread bags, daycare centres in Tembisa, Soweto and elsewhere, these centres can receive assistance in the form of basic goods to make their daycare environments more comfortable for the children.
In Tembisa, 65 000 of the bags came from Rhandzo Daycare, based in Umnonjaneni section.
Ms Mabel Mashiyane has selected a fridge and freezer, stoves, washing machines, as well as a carpet and tables and chairs as her prize.
“It is by God’s grace that today I am blessed with all these prizes. It is also through the hard work and dedication that I finally achieved my year’s goal. I am very grateful for everything that this project has ever done for me,” said Ms Mashiyane.
In a very close second place, Ms Matema Mashilo from Bophelong Daycare collected 60 000 bags. Third place went to Sekgowagowa daycare, where Ms Paulina Tselana and her team collected 34 500 bags.
