Letter to the Editor: Fever encourages school attendance
Little did I know that the Fever would change the attitude and lifestyle of people living in this community.
Dear Editor,
My name is Ski Nxumalo, I reside at Mvutshini Location in Ward 29 under Ray Nkonyeni Municipality and I work for Idwala Carbonates.
Myself and other residents from Ward 29 would like to thank the South Coast Fever for encouraging our children to to go to school.
I am the co-founder of a community-based organisation which was formulated mainly to promote the importance of education in our youth, drive community awareness campaigns, and alleviate social ills.
We survive on handouts and donations from various sympathetic individuals who like our movement. Thus far, we have assisted a number of young people coming from poor families by sending them to universities and some have already completed their respective degrees in various fields of study and some are still in campuses continuing studying.
Some of the villages in this ward are very deeply rural such as Thelawayeka, Dington, Elim kwaSunduza and far from both nearby towns (Margate and Port Shepstone), and many households in these villages are poverty-stricken and children travel very long distances to and from school.
I have organised clothing and food donations for these communities and copies of the South Coast Fever weekly.
Earlier this year, I approached the shop owner of BB Confectionery and Bakery situated opposite Marburg Secondary School and asked him for extra copies of the Fever so that I could hand them out in my community and the owner accepted my request.
Since then, it has become a norm that every Thursday in the afternoon coming from work I pick up one, or two sometimes even three bundles of the Fever and hand them over to the principal of Dington Primary School.
The principal then takes them with her the following day to school before dropping off one bundle at the Ludimala Clinic also in the same area.
Little did I know that the Fever would change the attitude and lifestyle of people living in this community.
I was so happy to learn that since the distribution of the Fever began, school attendance has improved so drastically, every child wants to come to school for the Fever.
Where as before, kids were being discouraged by the long distance they walk to school and end up dropping out.
This is the community where the source of income for most households is a government social grant and obviously they only go to town once during payouts, so the Fever helps them in a big way.
They can see in the Fever which shop in town sells what and when they get to town they are no longer vulnerable to criminals because they will not be scattered all over town not knowing where to buy. This newspaper helps them save time and money.
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