Help is a click away

POLOKWANE – With the aim of improving the pass rate in Westenburg schools, the Polokwane Child and Family Welfare has opened an Internet café in the area.

Learners can surf the Internet to find information for their projects or assignments and they can also print the information, free of charge.

Opened about a year ago, the Internet café caters only to learners, and is open every Wednesday from 12:00 to 17:00.

In support of the initiative, the principal of Noddy’s Playground Crèche and Pre-school, Leonne van Wyk, made one of the rooms at the school available for the Internet café.

Tina Marshall, a Westenburg resident and social worker at Polokwane Child and Family Welfare said it was alarming to see how many children failed in the community.

“We decided to investigate what the reason was for the poor pass rate, and teachers revealed that the learners did not have enough resources available to them to do proper research for their assignments.

“According to some of the teachers, the local library does not have a computer where the learners can go onto the Internet to do research for their projects and assignments, and most of the times the books at the library do not have sufficient information,” Marshall said.

She said their investigation also revealed that most of the learners came from disadvantaged families and did not have money to go to Internet cafés in town.

“With this information, we decided to open a Wes-tenburg Internet café. There is one computer with Internet access and a printer. I am here to help the children, I supervise to make sure it is school work they are using the Internet for, and I then print the information for them.

“This service is free of charge and to the benefit of Westenburg children,” Marshall explained.