LifeMatters Foundation in Meadowridge has two Mandela Month projects.
They have developed a “School in a Bag” project to benefit 500 Grade 2 and 3 pupils at five under-resourced primary schools in the southern suburbs.
The schools are Westlake, Sullivan, Capricorn, Steenberg and Lourier primary schools.
The bags are filled with educational and mental health resources, including play dough, bubbles, literacy, numeracy and life skills games and a stationery bag donated by green degree, a non-profit organisation raising funds for education.
Community members have committed to donating 430 batches of play dough which will be collected today, Thursday July 23, before the bags are delivered in late July and early August.
Sharleen Haupt, academic portfolio manager at LifeMatters Foundation, said the bags will be distributed to the most academically vulnerable children at the foundation’s beneficiary schools.
The foundation’s second initiative is “Courageous Conversations”, a 67-minute Zoom conversation, giving advice to teenagers on how they can cope amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Monday July 20, teens gathered on a Zoom call with LifeMatters volunteers to discuss the impact Covid-19 has had on them.
Various topics were addressed, from fighting at home, anxiety about school, boredom or desperation to see one’s friends.
These conversations will continue for the remainder of the month and August.
For more information, visit their website.
