Some schools in our area need help to ensure local children can study in an appropriate and engaging environment. Our fund has helped build strong ties with several local Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and supports them with funds for chairs and desks, burglar bars and other classroom materials.
What we do
This historical fund began as one of Coffee Shack’s Community Projects when Pato Junior Secondary School approached Coffee Shack for help. Their school consisted of several broken down mud huts and they had no funds to rebuild.
The initial plan of raising funds to rebuild the school changed when the government stepped in. The Department of Education rebuilt Pato JSS and students and teachers were ecstatic! The happiness was short-lived, however, as they soon discovered that rebuilding the school did not include refitting the furnishings. Adding to the dilemma, the contractors had used all the old furniture as firewood… the children were now sitting on the floor of their newly built classrooms! As a result, Coffee Shack Backpackers started a fundraising initiative for the necessary desks and chairs.
We made the notices for the toilet doors and since then Coffee Shack guests and visitors have been opening their hearts and wallets.
Are you sitting comfortably…?
Because the kids at our local schools aren’t – they have no chairs or desks.
Chat to the office staff to find out more about sponsoring towards a chair or desk.
What we’ve achieved so far
Thanks to the generous gifts of Coffee Shack guests, Pato JSS was fully furnished by 2006 and received a total of 88 tables, 145 chairs and 50 benches. In the years that followed we helped the school connect to the electricity grid and purchase teaching aids and equipment like a photocopier. After they received a computer lab, we also installed much needed burglar bars.
In the meantime, we checked out the desks and chairs at Coffee Bay JSS and realised they needed to be included in the fundraiser. In 2008, we were able to supply them with 80 chairs and 40 tables. Another school from the area, Madakeni JSS, approached us to assist them with burglar bars for their new computer lab they had received by donation and obviously, we obliged!
We still want to…
The desk and chair project lives on as all the rural schools need furniture. We also continue to offer a variety of services to the schools including the Wellness Wagon and the start of annual computer coding taster workshops.
If you would like to learn more about the work we do with our local schools, please contact us or click here to donate now.
Why we do what we do
Education is a right not a privilege. We help schools to offer a conducive learning environment with the tools needed to engage learners.
Learn more about some of the potentially fatal challenges facing learners, even now in the 21st century, and an interesting perspective available here from teachers who work in rural areas across South Africa.
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