De La Salle Holy Cross Junior College recently spread the joy of Christmas to Ikholwa Children’s Home.
The school’s Grade 4s sat with their beautifully presented ‘fit-in-a-box’ gifts to give to the children of the home. Three of the children who live at home arrived at the college to accept the gifts.
The school made 608 ‘fit-in-a-box’ gifts ready for those in need to use.
Ulrike Mann, general manager of the home based in Weltevreden Park, said that they currently have 19 children in their care. “We clothe, feed, house and educate all the children,” said Mann.
She added that they were blessed to go to the college to receive the lovely, much-needed donation boxes that were filled with various items the children could use.
Carren Ilsley, De La Salle’s deputy head, said that the school had undertaken numerous charitable initiatives like this over the past six years. It started when one of the teachers had one specific charity to donate to and that success developed the need to do more for the community.
“We then decided that every learner in our school needed to get involved in the process of giving,” said Ilsley.
To raise funds for the gifts this year, Ilsley said that the school charged R20 for civvies day which bought the containers the gifts would be packed into. The schoolchildren were then given a list of items they would need to fill each box.
The boxes were packed according to gender, but all generally had the same essentials including hats, socks, scarfs, aqueous cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stationery, hair accessories for the girls and balls for boys. They also went according to age as some of the organisations they gave to house families and pensioners.
To make the recipients feel even more special, each box was labelled with the name of the person meant to receive the box.
Mann concluded that she hoped the college’s schoolchildren understood the importance of giving and how life is not always about receiving. “We live in a society where children ask and they always get what they want, so giving is a very good educational incentive for them.”
Details: www.ikhola.com
