One such person is Ms. Remember Nyango, a South African woman with a passion and dedication to educate children in her rural community of Acornoek with a day care center for younger children. Assisting her with technical support for infrastructure is Kanimambo Creations, which also serves as Plenty’s partner in this region for prior projects. A newer project site is the Bokamoso Primary School.
Work is done by Vulavula Construction, which provides much needed employment in this community.
Project Director Mwana Bermudes writes: “We were approached by my old friend Antoinette Mhlanga, a brave indigenous Shangaan woman and mother of three teenagers living in the Mpumalanga province who is a teacher at the Bokamoso Primary School in Bolla-Tau, a neighborhood of Acornoek community. The school’s name means in Sotho language ‘build your own future’ and it was established in 2019 by Norman Hlabane, also its headmaster. There are currently 85 students and, for a monthly fee, the school offers classes from Grade 1 to Grade 5, from Monday to Friday. The children bring their own lunch. Norman’s main aim is to contribute towards the early education of his community children and, at the same time, offer their working parents a local primary school that minimizes transportation and its costs.
A heavy-duty, multi-unit ventilated toilet must be built to accommodate the daily students and teachers attending the school. There is no running water at the school and the old rain catchment/storage system is not operational. As there is not a reliable public running water source at the site, the staff has to use wheelbarrows to fetch water in plastic containers from a public spigot quite far from the school. There is an old rainwater catchment/storage system but it has not been operational for over a decade and is damaged beyond repair. A new system with two 5,200 liters (1,374 gallons) heavy-duty plastic reservoirs needs to be installed in order to provide clean water for drinking and washing. It will be the same type of system that we have successfully installed at the Dropping Centre and other community projects.” Cost of project: $12,000.
The “Dropping Center” provides a daily nutritious meal for 20 orphans, as well as support for after school learning and for practical skills like gardening and cooking. These children needed a safe place to go after morning school, and Plenty provided a $12,000 grant in 2022-23 to build the Center, a concrete block building with kitchen, central room, sanitary facilities, and rainwater catchment.
This project supported a 15 person household headed by a retired teacher. Construction of an enclosed kitchen to replace open air cooking, with running water, screened windows and electric stove. A rainwater catchment system and latrine were also built, and a plowed garden plot & soil amendments were provided.
Completed with a $7000 grant from Plenty in 2021-22.
Plenty is a not-for-profit organization that was created to help protect and share the world’s abundance and knowledge for the benefit of all.
