On Wednesday, 18 July 2018 – the day that South Africans come together to do good in remembrance of the late former president Nelson Mandela – Emperors Palace employees and members of the Peermont Community Benefit Trust (PCBT) rolled up their sleeves and spent the day refurbishing a library at Seotloana Primary School in Tembisa. “Ensuring learners in the area have access to the tools to a better future is a massive priority for us, not just on Mandela Day but all year-round,” says Jenny Findlay, Peermont Education Trust Manager. “The newly refurbished school library will not only allow learners to improve their levels of literacy but also help broaden their knowledge of the world.”
Established in 1978, the school’s 1 212 Pedi and Tswana speaking learners will now be able to benefit from a newly renovated and freshly stocked school library. The school also received a new computer to help with administrative tasks, such as data capturing and book management. Emperors Palace employees furthermore created a vegetable garden, played games with all the learners, and handed out scrumptious lunch packs, courtesy of Compass. “The late and great Nelson Mandela once said, ‘When we read, we are able to travel to many places, meet many people and understand the world’. Building on that, we hope that the learners will use every opportunity the new library brings, to immerse themselves in worlds outside of what they know and expand their horizons,” says Findlay. “Emperors Palace would like to thank all their partners for contributing to this worthy effort.”
As part of encouraging greening in schools, the trust sponsored a sensory garden, installed by Plantcentric, to help the children learn about nature through smell, taste, sight, feel and touch. Learners were encouraged to maintain the garden and keep the grounds free of litter, teaching them responsibility and discipline in the process. In addition, water fountains and palisade fencing was repaired, with Afrimat donating bricks towards 300 square meters of paving at the school.
To add to the Mandela Day activities, the Trust launched a creative writing competition that serves as a gateway for learners to improve literacy levels and learn how to better articulate themselves. The competition offers an opportunity for all the learners from grade 5 to 7 to participate and stand a chance to win prizes. Judging will take place in August and the winners will be announced at the prestigious Peermont CSI awards at Emperors Palace.
In addition to the new library, the PCBT provided funding for the school’s Grade R programme, which aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning among practitioners at the school. According to Findlay, the purpose of the programme is to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Grade R by building capacity of the Grade R practitioners. “This in turn ensures that more learners are able to excel academically, giving them a better chance of improving their lives,” she says. The Trust also donated a new fully stocked mobile classroom for the Grade R class to avoid overcrowding.
The PCBT sponsors a range of other community upliftment programmes, including the Lesedi Scarce Skills Programme which offers young people from Ekurhuleni the opportunity to complete trades. The Peermont Hotel School is one of the Trust’s biggest projects, providing young people with theoretical and on-the-job hospitality training to help them pursue sustainable careers in the industry, with successful participants awarded the industry and internationally-recognised City & Guilds certificate.
Emperors Palace is a Peermont Resort. Visit www.emperorspalace.com or contact 011 928 1000. Connect with us Facebook and like us on Twitter.
