Winterveldt Secondary School recently received 1000 masks thanks to a donation made by Tshwane’s
MMC for Social Development, Thabisile Vilakazi . The donation was made after realizing that some of learners would come to school without masks because they had lost them.
Vilakazi said the gesture would go a long way towards helping disadvantaged learners ward off the risks of contracting Covid-19.The department would also like to distribute more masks to other schools in the municipality. She confirmed that there were another 3 000 masks planned for distribution to two other schools in Atteridgeville and Mamelodi.
“We would like to donate masks to other schools as well, but this is the high school that has teenagers that interact with each other a lot and where the risk of contracting the virus exists.We are here because we have realised this pandemic is here to stay for some time. We know there are kids that come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Some of them don’t even have masks,” she said.
During her visit, Vilakazi identified other social needs at the school which included learners being forced to go to bed on a hungry stomach and some without IDs. “We are going to ask some social workers to come here and list those cases and see how we can come in as the Department of Social Development,” she said.
