Interact makes kitchen dream come true for farm school

Last Friday (25 June), Jacob Ramatsoa, the principal of Ourief farm school’s dream came true. Since he was appointed as the new principal in 2017, he longed for a proper kitchen at the school. For many years, personnel at this public school had to prepare two meals for more than 90 children in a small Wendy house that is not equipped with water or electricity.

It was the good-hearted charity group, Interact, at Ferdinand Postma High School that realised Mr Ramatsoa’s dream. This year, the theme at Ferdies is “Pay it Forward”. They brought together people in Potchefstroom who donated their time, energy and money to build the kitchen.

The Warrior group at North-West University’s Business School held a Spinathon to raise part of the funds. The rest of the money for the building project came from donations. Hendrik Brits, the owner of Lomanox Pty Ltd (a construction company) and his team of 10 builders from Potchefstroom built the kitchen within two weeks, free of charge. Enslin from Ilana Designs will also donate and instal custom-made kitchen cupboards.

The revealing of the kitchen was celebrated by the children of the school, who each received a surprise package from Ferdies. Personnel and learners from Ferdies also treated the guests and personnel of both schools to a light lunch and steaming hot coffee.

Ourief farm school is on the road to Parys, 17 km from Potchefstroom. It serves 92 children from the Rooipoortjie area from Grade R to Grade 7. While the government has provided a bus to transport the children, some of them must walk more than five kilometres to these pick-up points.