WESSA Schools Programme Impact Report 2020

Ntsweletsoku Primary School

Zeerust, North West

IRENE MODISAKENG’S STORY OF CHANGE Originally from Luka Village, I started my teaching career in 1994 at Reaname Middle School. I have been teaching at Ntsweletsoku Primary School (in Zeerust, Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality) since 2007. My teaching diploma is from Tlhabane College and I received my degree from Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) in 2004.

I live by the motto that begging for food from a generous farmer is wrong and I take care of nature so that it may also take care of me. SCHOOL PROGRAMME

Believing that the environment gives us life, I am a founder of our school garden to alleviate the prevalent poverty in our area.

We entered the Baswa Le Meetse competition in 2008, where I met the facilitators of WESSA’s Eco-Schools Programme. They taught me about saving water, gardening and the importance of trees. Over the years we have successfully acquired our Eco- Schools Bronze-, Silver- and Gold certificates and a Green Flag.

MY JOURNEY INTO THE ECO-ECO-SCHOOL HELPS MY TEACHING Eco-Schools concepts help me with all my classes. In Arts & Culture , we reuse or recycle bottles, paper, plastic bottles and bags, etc. We earn money for the school by selling these recycled or reused products for EMS and we learn about issues such as littering, water and sanitation in Life Orientation . OUR SCHOOL PROJECTS Our food garden is invaluable to our school feeding scheme, since most of our learners come from

poverty-stricken backgrounds. We teach them life skills such as how to harvest rainwater and when to water plants so that the water does not evaporate. Our 1,068 learners (from Grade R to Grade 7) benefit from our garden. We eat fresh vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, cabbages, spinach, beans, carrots and potatoes and save a lot of money. Our flower garden is a centre of attraction, which decorates our school while the lawn prevents soil erosion caused by water run-off.

Tree planting is also part of our programme and we have planted twelve trees as windbreaks, shade and to prevent soil erosion. We place two-litre bottles in the soil next to each tree to drip water to the roots and save a lot of water.

We have made worm farms in tyres

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