By Zuko Komisa
Kaya 959 has acknowledged the demand of preparing children for the upcoming winter. We’ve found that in many instances, parents don’t know the dangers involved during wintertime and more so often, are unable to inform their children on the precautions to take.
Our Brave Winter campaign started off at Mvelaphande Primary School on the 21st of April. The remainder of the campaign will roll out in the area of the Diepsloot township, North of Johannesburg at five other schools.
This year, Kaya Cares will be supported by Akunamlilo Fire Fighters, whose contribution is providing fire awareness to the learners and arranging for fire extinguishers to be up in all the schools. They have developed a basic program to help children understand the dangers of fire and how to prevent being affected by fire related incidents.
They also provided posters on how to avoid starting a fire for teachers and learners alike to put up in their schools. A huge driver for the fire awareness campaign is that in September 2013, about 25 families lost their homes to fire which in most cases could have been prevented.
One of the many challenges underprivileged children face is living in homes without electricity where they need to rely on using candles, paraffin or gas. Children also walk to school in the early hours of the morning in the dark because there are no streetlights. This poses an especially difficult problem for children with eyesight issues.
As a step toward alleviating this, Ster-Kinekor Vision Mission has partnered with Kaya Cares in offering eye-tests for children at these schools and providing prescription glasses to those who need it.
Meals on Wheels, a national organisation feeding over 10 000 people a day will be providing meals to all the learners on all the local school visitations.
“The plight of the hungry in South Africa is a real one, one in four South Africans are hungry. We believe we are in the middle of a war-zone fighting the scourge of hunger.” says National Programmes Director, Gershon Naidoo
Our Brave Winter campaign will see the following objectives realised. They are for the children to:
- Be educated about fire prevention and to create more fire aware children
- Receive a renovated library at each school
- Receive eye-tests and prescription glasses as required
- Be educated about road safety
- Receive a gift from Kaya Cares to keep them snug this winter
