Thursday
1st April
Karnagie
Sharp's diary: Day 1 |
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| Homes
of some of the pupils from Nonhlevu Secondary school |
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On
Tuesday April 27 South Africa celebrates 10 years of democracy.
BBC Radio Berkshire and six local schools have launched a project
to help provide a congratulatory meal to a deprived school in South
Africa.
Our
reporter Karnagie Sharp is in South Africa to help get the project
off the ground.
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Karnagie
Sharp's diary
Day
1
Today was my first visit to the school in Kwa Zulu Natal, South
Africa. Even though I was born and brought up in this country, the
lives of the under-privileged never fail to surprise me.
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| Two
pupils from the school and two community volunteers working
during lunchtime to level out the school's roads after the rain.
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The country
has been ravaged through years of legal oppression, making the task
of improving living conditions a colossal one.
The school
that the six Berkshire schools are working with is smack-bang in the
middle of a rural area. A place neglected by the past and almost ignored
by the present.
It's the
South Africa that people would like to forget.
Children
that go to this school come from extremely poor backgrounds. Some
of them have to walk up to fifteen kilometres to get to here.
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| Pupils
enjoying a game of football |
Walking
around the premises today made me realise just how lucky other children
in more fortunate countries are.
There
are sixty children to a class at Nonhlevu Secondary and the surprising
thing is the silence that grabs you when you're walking past a classroom…how
different to the circumstances that we face as teachers in the UK.
These
children have the utmost respect for you and on hearing what we're
doing they are now even more enthusiastic to prove to us that they'll
work harder, to get the support they need.
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| Grade
12 children at a tutorial |
The head
teacher at the school, Mr Naicker, is a man with an incredible vision.
He has made this school into a comfortable learning environment, always
keeping in mind the needs of a child.
Even though
he was credited by the minister of education last year for his outstanding
contribution to this school, he remains humble and his vision for
his pupils grows with each new day….he has my utmost respect and is
really looking forward to Twinning with the Berkshire Schools in the
future.
Tomorrow,
I head back to the school to investigate the lives of two of the
children who walk twelve kilometres each day to get to school and
back….bearing the burden of poverty, but persevering to take advantage
of whatever this education system can offer them…
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