Geberit School Project South Africa – DAY 16

Blog written by Saskia Bauer

We don’t want to say good bye because the past three weeks shall only be the beginning of a long term cooperation with the Fountein Combined School. All of us want to come back one day, some already in October, others next year to continue the project.

We’ve achieved even more than we expected. Although it was hard sometimes and not everything went so smoothly like in Europe we started to understand the South African culture at least a little bit and have hopefully brought new hope to the community.

The food garden gives the kids the opportunity to help grow their own vegetables and eat a healthy meal.
We introduced trash bins to the kids which can’t be stolen because the weigh 250kg. The next step will be to teach the students about recycling but at this stage it is enough that they start throwing their rubbish into the bins

During the break the kids can now play games which we have drawn on the tarmac and use the new playground we have installed. When they play soccer others can watch the match now comfortably seated on one of the 25 new benches.

We spoke with the kids about environmental issues, about water conservation and hygiene.With the help of the kids we managed to give their school a nicer and child friendlier appearance by painting the murals. And last but not least every student got the chance to go on an excursion with us whether it was the dunes, the Lion’s Park, Bay World or Shamwari.

Some kids have never before left their community so this was something very exciting for them as well as for us who were infected by the excitement of the kids.

All in all the last three weeks have been a great success and all of us have formed new friendships with the kids in the school. We learned a lot about their culture but also about their poor living conditions which helps us even more to appreciate what we have. We should be happy with what we have and help others who are less privileged. As we wrote on one of the murals: Together we can make the world a better place!