February 2023
Students at South African schools wear uniforms, so that all the children look largely alike. This makes one’s background (and therefore also poverty) less visible and it stimulates a feeling of equality. At the King’s College campus, you’ll notice children wear different uniforms. Most of the students wear our standard red uniform that was designed specifically for our primary school. The youngest grades wear a simple version of the uniform: a red t-shirt instead of a white blouse and a red jacket, because it makes playing so much easier. Besides that, you’ll notice that the High School students, who are in Grade 8 and 9, wear grey uniforms. They are so proud to distinguish themselves from the younger children with their own uniform.
These uniforms are all fabricated by Teacher Koopman, who also teaches the needlework classes. By making them ourselves, we’re able to keep the prices for the uniforms low. We also keep the school fees as low as possible (which we can do because of your support), to make education accessible for all children. However, we know that there are families who cannot afford to pay even these low prices. We sometimes hear heartbreaking stories about poverty from other mothers, the teachers or social workers.
Now that the new school year has started, new stories of (worsened) poverty reach us. The summer holidays is a difficult time for many parents and many people struggle because of unemployment, low salaries and terrible working conditions. Where there is hardly enough money to buy food for the family, paying school fees or purchasing uniforms can be a real struggle, however low we try to keep the costs. For these families we strive to arrange sponsorship or try to look for other solutions. We want to grant every child a place at our schools and a beautiful uniform to wear proudly. Through our specific donations page you can contribute towards a fund to support these families with uniforms for their children.