Schools sleep out at Kingsmead
MELROSE – Kingsmead College challenges Johannesburg schools to take part in their schools sleepout.
Kingsmead College in Melrose will host a joint School SleepOut for pupils from Kingsmead and five other invited schools.
This initiative, supported by Liberty Holdings Limited, will take place on 28 of July and the schools involved in the SleepOut are challenging other pupils to spend the night sleeping out on their school grounds. Schools need to pledge to collect items to be donated to beneficiary schools or charitable organisations. These could be food, toiletries, clothing, books, stationery or even blankets, which will be handed over after the event.
The Kingsmead pupils will collect sandwiches and launch a reading room for Fight with Insight, a boxing centre for youths in the inner city of Johannesburg. Reddam Bedfordview’s pupils have pledged to collect items for Mother Teresa in Yeoville, St Vincent School for the Deaf and for Chaylil, an informal settlement in Jackson’s Drift. Redhill School has also risen to the challenge and will join Kingsmead and Reddam on the night, with other joining schools to be announced soon.
Dhiren Sivjattan, chief operating officer at Liberty Value Added Services said the school SleepOut has two aims.
“It is to encourage pupils to develop empathy for the thousands of homeless and vulnerable South Africans, and to make a tangible difference to those in need through the items the pupils collect to donate.”
Liberty will provide logistical support on the night in the form of medical standby facilities, catering and items that make up a SleepOut kit. Everything loaned to the pupils and teachers sleeping out on the grounds of Kingsmead on the night will be donated after the event to a beneficiary that supports homeless South Africans.
Schools can sign up on the CEO SleepOut website by completing an online form. They pay a R200 registration fee and receive a toolkit with instructions on how to arrange their School SleepOut and collection drive. All schools that sign up are listed on the CEO SleepOut website, which include the school’s message to South Africa, the beneficiary name, what the pupils are collecting and their reasons for participating.
Details: www.theceosleepoutza.co.za
