Frequent interruptions to the municipal water supply at a Shallcross, Durban, Secondary School has negatively impacted the daily functioning of the school and its learners, leading to school closures and lost teaching time at a time when education is batling to return to normality in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis.
Opened in 1982, Wingen Heights Secondary School serves 1 140 primarily disadvantaged learners from Shallcross, St. Wendolins, Klaarwater, Kwadengezi, Northdene, Hillview, Buffelsbosch, Welbedacht, Burlington Halt, and Chiltern Heights. Supply interruptions, sometimes lasting up to three weeks, has resulted in significant lost school days and put pressure on both learners and teachers to complete the curriculum within a significantly reduced timeframe. The school has also faced the additional and untenable burden of purchasing potable water on a regular basis, placing a strain on its already tight financial status.
Recently, however, the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT) came to the school’s aid, funding the installation of a borehole to the value of R155 000, immediately alleviating the challenges it faced.
Reflecting on its donation, SAMCT representative, Mr Gaff Osman, said: “Much education time was lost as a consequence of the health crisis and atendant restrictions during the past several years. For a school to now be faced with further lost school days is simply unacceptable and upon learning of the prevailing situation at Wingen Heights Secondary School, we of the SAMCT were delighted to assist with a borehole solution.”
“Installing the borehole at the school ensures consistency of supply of good quality water and enables members of staff to concentrate on their core responsibility – that of using all available time to provide the learners in their charge with a fit and proper education,” Mr Osman added.
The installation project has the added benefit of helping reduce the cost of municipal water borne by the school, whilst also enabling the continuance and expansion of the facility’s community garden project and ensuring that the surrounding communities are also afforded access to the borehole water supply.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The organisation provides funding, services and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in delivering sizeable assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation and education.
“In view of the financial constraints faced by schools such as this, the SAMCT recognized that the capital cost of a borehole solution was beyond the means of Wingen Heights Secondary School. Having access to a constant supply of good quality water at the school will, I believe, fundamentally change school life here, together with providing an invaluable community benefit. We of the SAMCT are, therefore, gratified to have been the catalyst for such change.”