Partnership revamps Stephenson Primary School
Upgraded classrooms, a new lunch area and a vegetable garden are just some of the improvements encouraging children to attend classes every day.
A long-standing relationship between the Friends of Hope Foundation and Stephenson Primary School continues to bring joy to learners’ faces, encouraging them to look forward to attending school every day.
The Friends of Hope Foundation partnered with Chic Mama’s Do Care and Post Tensioning & Structural Solutions (Pty) Ltd (PTS-S) to embark on a project aiming to revamp the school, based on their shared value of ensuring growth, empowerment and impact in early childhood development. Through their work, they have upgraded the school’s bathrooms, levelled the ground, built a shaded lunch area, added a playground with jungle gyms, started a garden and added ceilings to the classrooms. Their most recent project improved the classrooms internally by adding stable flooring and insulation to assist with the hot weather.
Read more: Foundations revamp Stephenson Primary School classrooms to boost learning
Friends of Hope Foundation founder Holly Singh says it is of utmost importance that everything introduced through their initiatives is sustainable, creating a continuous cycle of development and impact for the learners and the wider community. “With the garden and the shed, learners can sit there and enjoy the shed, but they are also taught how to garden. The harvest from their planted vegetables can be cooked and used to feed the children, and when the garden grows bigger, they can start selling to the community. That way the cycle of sustainability continues,” says Singh.
Also read: Donation of library trolley brings reading to Stephenson Primary School
She explains what the most rewarding part of the partnership is. “It is so amazing knowing that you are making a change, witnessing the change in the school every time I come, and when the learners run and hug me screaming, ‘Thank you so much for the jungle gym, we love it’,” she says.
Stephenson Primary School principal Jean Kadungure explains the difference in the learners’ attitude and how the school was prior to the revamp. “Last year they fixed up the classes. They were made with the material used in Wendy houses without drywalling, so when it was hot, it was very hot for the learners, and very cold during the winter. Now, it’s cooler in the classes. Learners even come to school early now and don’t want to go home. You can see on their faces that they are happy to be at school, not just inside the classrooms, but because they have something to do even outside the school – we are very grateful to the Friends of Hope Foundation, PTS-S and Chic Mama’s Do Care,” says Kadungure.
Learners took turns performing dances, reciting poems and delivering speeches, all in appreciation of the donation and changes to their school.
Follow us on our Whatsapp channel, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates!
