A great day at Kgatla village

It was so rewarding to see the excitement in the village when they received our donations -- especially when the village orphans received their uniforms.....

The trip took us a little over 3 hours due not only to distance, but  the bad dirt road that were only rocks in some parts, and also a slight delay while one of the drivers from the Premier's Department was stopped by police who discovered that she had an outstanding traffic fine which had to be paid before we could go any further! 

We first had to follow the signs to go to the village of 'My Darling' ....

which consisted of a large water tank and a small number of huts.

We turned right at My Darling and eventually arrived at Kgatla.  The whole village was at the school to greet us.  At first we were amazed at the number of children in uniforms and wondered why the request was for uniforms.  But, once you were up close to the kids, it was clear that the uniforms they had were thread bare and torn.

We were asked to move into a large room at the school and this was all set out with a table at the front covered in lace tablecloths with flowers.  This was for my team - the official guests.  There was a formal program of the event.  The Chief greeted us to the village and we introduced ourselves -- all through an interpreter.  

Team members (left to right) Ine, Sujata, Susan, Keiko, Camilla, Carolyn

Once the formalities were done we formed a line and carried the bags of shopping into the room.

Village Chief in the middle talking with personnel from the Department of Education

The Principal of the school then brought forward a number of children and asked if we could search out the right size uniforms for them.  They were the orphans in the village and they wanted these children to receive uniforms first:

Orphans before receiving uniforms

Orphans in their new uniforms (two of them eating marshmallows that had been handed to them before the photo)

When the orphans arrived back into the room all dressed up in their uniforms there were screams from the crowd who spontaneously applauded and yelled with delight.  The Principal of the school jumped up and did a dance of joy across the front of the crowd.

Crowd applauding with Stella, the representative from the Premier's Department in the red shirt -- the MC for the event

I had a wonderful encounter with an elder of the village.  After several minutes of her talking in Sepedi to me, and me replying in English, I worked out that she wanted me to take her photo!  There was much delight when I was able to show her the photo on the screen of my camera:

We left knowing that the whole village truly appreciated our donations and we were touched by the warmth of their greetings.  

Thanks again to the people who helped us make this happen for the people of Kgatla.

The shopping marathon

 Last Thursday we went shopping for school uniforms to take to the village of Kgatla -- what a marathon effort that became as we went to 5 stores and spent close to 5 hours purchasing all the items!

Why were we shopping for school uniforms?
As part of our Corporate Service Corps assignment, the team members wanted to donate some small items that we each brought with us to South Africa to an organization (school or orphanage). We spoke to the local officials at the Education Department here in Polokwane to try and identify a worthy school. They identified a project called 'War on Poverty' that we could contribute to.

The Education Department was so excited that we wanted to donate to their project that they contacted the Premier's Department. Following this, the Premier's Department identified a village called Kgatla that should receive our contributions -- considered to be the 'poorest of the poor'. 

The village is about 150 kms from Polokwane, the capital of Limpopo.  It has 130 households, 1 primary school (161 children), 1 high school (148 children) and 1 day care centre (61 children) - - no running water, no electricity and until very recently, no sanitation. 

When the Premier's Department asked the village Chief what they would need, they requested dictionaries and school uniforms for the children of the village.  Once we received information from the Education Department about the huge volume of uniforms needed, the team set out to see what funds we could raise through our friends and family -- and I am proud to say that my friends and family were very generous in this effort.  I appreciate your generosity.

Shirts and Skirts purchased at 'Stock Price' Store

We raised enough funds to purchase 67 skirts, 127 pairs of trousers, 156 shirts, 175 pair of shoes, 6 pair of socks, and 44 dictionaries. Other donations included:  clothing (baby, children, adult), food, baby formula, toys, candy, school books, soap, tooth paste, toothbrushes, sports equipments and arts and craft materials. 

Girls school shoes

Exhausted by a day of shopping, we were ready for our trip to Kgatla!