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A movement of learners, parents and teachers took to the streets of two regions in Ekurhuleni (in on the Eastrand of Gauteng) to take part in an awareness campaign on Friday, November 2020.
The campaign was held in the streets of Kwa-Thema and Duduza in Ekurhuleni, where members of Equal Education (EE) stood at main roads with placards written “FEED THE POOR SCHOOL CHILDREN ELEVIATE [alleviate] POVERTY”. They also sang songs and engaged with community members, giving them pamphlets.
When the national lockdown was implemented in South A on March 26 2020, EE, the EE Law Centre (EELC), SECTION27, Children’s Institute and Centre for Children’s Law wrote to Department of Basic Education asking Minister Angie Motshekga to continue with the distribution of National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) to learners even when at they are at home.
EE together with EELC, SECTION27 and two Limpopo School Governing Bodies (SGBs) submitted an urgent legal application to court (EE and others vs Department of Basic Education and others 2020) on 12 June 2020. On 17 June 2020 Judge Potterill handed down the judgment – a victory for the EE, EELC, SECTION27, and nine million learners and households. The DBE was ordered to roll out NSNP to all learners.
Nthabiseng Mashigo, a community leader and post school youth representative at EE, says “the awareness was a success. We got to mobilise the community and we covered both regions as planned”.
“The awareness campaign was to let community members know about the existence of NSNP and mobilise parents to join EE”, concluded Mashigo.
EE, EELC and SECTION27 have since continued monitoring the roll out of NSNP with the help of Equalisers, learners, teachers, parents and caregivers.
This article was submitted on 23 November 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
