Words: Keri Krug PR
Staff at ZAZOO, a business unit of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (“Net1”, Nasdaq: UEPS; JSE: NT1), continued with the company’s focus on investing in education when it celebrated Nelson Mandela Day by providing practical support for Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners at Noordgesig Secondary School in Soweto, Johannesburg.
The company engaged with the school to identify the learners’ needs earlier in the month, and then set aside Friday 17 July for all staff to work together to pack up the hampers that the school had requested.
The Grade 10 learners each received a math set and a beanie, and the Grade 11 learners each received a stationery set that included pens, pencils, scissors, a ruler and a sharpener, as well as a beanie. The Grade 12 pupils each received a similar stationery gift, but were also each given a Sun-e-light.
ZAZOO developed the Sun-e-light after it identified that one of the greatest obstacles on the path of learning for many school children is that they don’t have electricity to provide light for night-time studying. The Sun-e-light is a solar powered lamp and cell phone charger, with later models including a built-in SIM card, which means they can be used as a WIFI hotspot too. The Sun-e-light aims to give learners the light they need, and access to additional information over the internet, supporting them in their quest to study.
“The stationery packs will go a long way to helping our learners for the remainder of this year and are much appreciated by the learners,” said Derek Devereux, Principal of Noordgesig Secondary School. “And of course it’s not just the students that need to work at night – teachers also put in many extra hours outside the classroom in preparation for their lessons, so we were so pleased when ZAZOO gave a Sun-e-light to each of our teachers too”.
The ZAZOO team handed the stationery packs, beanies and Sun-e-lights to the learners when they returned to school for the third term, on 20 July.
“We have identified schools that need support, and have already given more than 2 000 Sun-e-lights to assist learners with the help they need to achieve academic success,” says Philip Belamant, Managing Director of ZAZOO. “We were delighted to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday by continuing with this focus on helping South Africa’s children achieve their full potential. It’s often the simplest things that are the biggest obstacles, and we are glad to have helped the learners at Noordgesig by giving them the basics that they need to complete their education.”
