Standard Lesotho Bank helps needy children

BEREA — Standard Lesotho Bank last Thursday donated school bags and shoes to orphans and vulnerable children at Mpara Primary School in Ha Matsipa.

Standard Lesotho Bank employees and management contributed over M16 000 to buy uniforms for 38 orphans and vulnerable students in Mpara and Phelandaba Primary School in Butha-Buthe.

Presenting the uniforms to the students, the bank’s regional manager in the North, Thabo Mabaleha, said it is their duty as Standard Lesotho Bank employees to help the needy.

“We approached Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRSC) as we wanted to assist in their projects then they told us about this school. We then asked for a list of 36 orphaned and vulnerable children,” Mabaleha said.

The bank bought jerseys, socks, shirts and school bags for the children.

The secretary general of LRSC, Teboho Kitleli, said the school management asked for their help after one of the classrooms was destroyed by heavy rains last year.

“We visited the school after a building fell on one of the students during heavy rains. The classroom buildings are very old and they are also not enough for the students as some sit outside during lessons,” he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, the school’s principal, ’Makoporale Motanyane, said the buildings need renovations as they are very old.

“Our school is over 100 years old and the current buildings are not in a good condition.

“We asked LRCS to give us a tent as some of our students sit outside due to a shortage of classrooms,” Motanyane said.

She said during winter students have to share classrooms which is a big inconvenience.

“Those who sit outside are distracted by people who pass near the school,” she said.

“The school is not easily accessible as the road is very bad. Sometimes we don’t get the teaching materials from the government on time because the driver leaves our teaching materials at other schools and then we have to send students to collect them,” she said.

The school has no toilets and running water.

She said most students who attend the school are orphaned and vulnerable.

Motanyane said they sometimes “ask the women who feed them to give the left overs to those students so that they can have two meals a day”.