Wholesome new offerings

In March we started an ongoing Saturday mathematics class for our vendors’ kids in Grades 10 and 11 at The Big Issue offices in Cape Town. The aim is to help them improve their marks, help cement concepts that they learn in school, and help them prepare for exams. We also want to offer them a space in which to practise maths as we know that this helps towards achieving better grades. Maths is known to be a challenging subject for many learners, and it has certainly been reported as a challenge by many vendors’ children.

Bearing this in mind, we asked veteran maths teacher, Mr Robert Ford, to instruct the children in this important subject.

We also bought stationery for the kids to avoid extra expenses for their parents, and they are served lunch and reimbursed for their transport costs. Although this project is still in its early phase, we’re looking to extend it so more children can benefit from it.

We will be inviting special guests from different fields who apply maths in their practice to make this a more attractive offering. We hope to inspire and motivate the children and help them realise that many different careers involve maths. We also aim to get them thinking about their future careers.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Decent shelter is one of the many needs we have identified among our vendors and the families we support. To meet this need we’re now offering our vendors a home improvement service. This encompasses plumbing, electrical connections, repairing leaking roofs, and general house maintenance. We identified a house (occupied by the late Nofizile Ndabeni’s family) that needed maintenance. Nofizile was a Big Issue vendor who worked her pitch in Constantia but passed away tragically in 2020. We have assisted her family by starting to build a proper outside toilet for them, because the one they were using was poorly built and almost falling apart. This posed a physical threat and health hazard to the family.

It is still a work in progress as we still need to fit a door and a window to the toilet block. We managed to finance this from the Spirit Foundation funding that we received to help with house improvement. This offering will be extended to other vendors who have home improvements that they might want to do for example repairing leaking roofs, door fittings, replacing windows, installing security gates and more.

THANKS TO YOU

I would like to extend my enormous gratitude to you, our readers, for the support you offer to our vendors and ensuring that some of their needs are met. Through donations, enough money was raised for Sive Mondile and Zuko Pholo from Fish Hoek (featured in our January/February issue) to pursue their dreams. Sive wanted to learn how to sew, and he is now attending classes to learn this skill. All his sewing school fees and costs have been fully covered thanks to your kind donations. Likewise, Zuko wanted to get a driver’s licence, and all the costs to get one have been paid for him. As a result, he is in the process of realising his dream.

Mkhululi Magqabi, featured in a previous issue, wanted a sewing machine to create work opportunities, and he received more than one, and different models at that! Some money was also donated to Mkhululi, enabling him to buy sewing fabric.

All your efforts are recognised and may you continue supporting our vendors. Thank you.

Tsephi