Colonial Bank helps needy schools.
Yet another school has received aid from Colonials Education Assistance programme, in an effort to get children back into their normal learning environment after the January floods.
Talaiya Muslim Primary School is located in Ba near Moto, a few kilometres from where the Moto Bridge collapsed during the floods. The families in the area suffered tremendously from the floods. Their cane farms had been destroyed due to the waters ripping through the crops which was their main means of livelihood. The settlement is a low income community in the Ba area.
The school has four classrooms that are split in half to accommodate classes one through to eight
Most of these children cannot afford to bring lunch from home. Some walk many miles to reach school everyday. The school assisted the students by providing meals everyday for the past ten weeks.
Colonial responded to their plight by donating more than $2,500 worth of stationery some sporting gear to the 80 students of the school. The donation was made on Thursday 23 April 2009 at a ceremony at the school.
Pervious assistance was school books and bus fare support from Save the Children Fund.
Colonial’s Head of Community Affairs, Mr Howard Politini said “it is an honour to help children like you, because you are a special gift from God. Education is a human right in today’s world. I urge you students to persevere through school in these hard times so you have the opportunity to improve you and your families’ future; whether you end up working in offices or mind your own cane farms.”
Colonial representatives were humbled when they saw the excitement on the children’s faces, on receiving the much needed stationery. Mr Salim Buksh, the Manager for Colonials Ba branch said “It was like one of the noblest things we did. We could see the faces of innocent kids that they just want to get back to school.”
The school head teacher Mr Intaj Mohammad was thankful to Colonial, for assisting with the education of the children. He felt very fortunate, “I am grateful to this corporate organisation for helping out the Talaiya children and our small community in our time of need. The parents and the school have found it very difficult to provide education after this disaster because the floods had destroyed the basic livelihood of the whole settlement. Parents are struggling to rebuild their lives and put three meals on the table for their families.”
The children were overjoyed to receive all the items and couldn’t wait to see their new materials and playing gear. They all stood around the stationery and watched with excitement as the items were unveiled; they even got ready for a photograph.
Along with Talaiya Muslim Primary School, Nabau District School in Ra and Sigatoka Methodist Primary have also been recipients of Colonial’s Educational Assistance programme since the floods of January 2009.
