TRAC’s family expands through outreach project

In the second month of 2011 the pupils of Takheleni Primary in Matsulu, a deep-rural village near Malalane, officially welcomed a deceptively simple new structure on their school terrain – a giant corrugated roof set on tall pillars spaced widely apart, with decorative railings painted green spanning most of the concrete slab below it. Standing in a neat square bordered by the school’s classrooms, the structure is completed by a retaining wall, in front of which is a garden of indigenous hardy plants. This small oasis of green is bordered by crushed white rock that glimmers in the sunlight.

Before this structure was there, the community (staff, parents and learners) of Takheleni had no shelter from the scorching sun or rain storms or space to have group readings and parent-teacher meetings. Through a partnership with TRAC and the principal, teachers, school governing body and and Matsulu’s community, Thakeleni’s 1 110 pupils now have a safe, attractive permanent assembly structure to call their own.

Says school principal,Thandi Chaza: “In this hot school we needed shelter. We knocked and knocked on many doors, but it was TRAC who listened with their hearts.”

By all accounts the school’s improvement has been a joint effort and the experience seems to have left no one untouched. “The involvement of everyone makes me proud,” says TRAC CEO Arthur Coy. “TRAC and the community worked together, and the spirit of camaraderie that has grown out of it is fantastic.”

TRAC maintains its close involvement with Takheleni Primary School through a number of projects to improve access to running water at the school and development of the school’s library.