ADVERTISEMENT:

 
 

The MEC for Social Development, Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana (centre), and the mayor of the Makhado Local Municipality, Cllr Samuel Munyai (right), with learners during the school uniform handover. 

Stay away from sugar daddies

 

To assist vulnerable learners, the MEC for Social Development, Ms Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana, recently handed over school uniforms to learners of Vhutuwangadzebu Primary School in Ha-Mandiwana. 

The gesture forms part of the department’s annual project that will benefit about 1 000 learners in Limpopo. The project is aimed at protecting the rights and dignity of learners to stay in school and receive a quality education.

The MEC said the department endeavoured every year to improve the plight of vulnerable learners by ensuring that they could attend school with dignity and pride in their brand-new school uniforms. "We are confident that this will give them the boost they need to finish their school careers and advance to higher education," she added. 

According to her, education remained one of the key priorities of the government but was not a stand-alone issue. "The support of quality education includes the eradication of hunger and poverty, primary health care and rural development, to ensure that children all over the province are given equal opportunity to perform their best at school," she said. 

"We have noted time and again that children cannot concentrate in class on an empty stomach or while fighting an illness. While the government has many projects and programmes in place in support of this endeavour, we encourage communities to continue taking charge of the situation."

She added that her department needed the creative assistance of communities in terms of developing food gardens or identifying struggling and especially child-headed families in the community. “We need to join hands in this fight against this triple challenge of poverty, hunger and unemployment," she said. 

She urged the learners to refrain from using drugs and young women from falling into the trap of sugar daddies. "You cannot finish your education while intoxicated, and falling pregnant before writing your matric exams will complicate your lives. Drugs dealers are in this country to steal from us. They never use the drugs themselves, but they ensure that many young people become addicted to ruin progress in this country. Do not give them what they want. Don’t even start experimenting with drugs," she said.

 

Date:03 March 2019

By: Mbulaheni Ridovhona

The 22-year-old Mbulaheni (Gary) Ridovhona has been passionate about journalism to the extent that he would buy himself a copy of weekly Univen students' newsletter, Our Voice. After reading, he would write stories about his rural village, Mamvuka, and submit them to the very newsletter for publication. His deep-rooted love for words and writing saw him register for a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at the University of Venda, and joined the Limpopo Mirror team in February 2016 as a journalism intern.

Read: 813

 

ADVERTISEMENT

 

ADVERTISEMENT:

ADVERTISEMENT:

 

Recent Articles

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Popular Articles