World Vision Brings Water to Welcome Primary School, Improving Education and Health

For a very long time, learners from Welcome Primary had been juggling classes and fetching water for the school, compelling the school to be an inappropriate learning environment.  

According to Sibongile Nxumalo, a teacher from the Primary School located at Dumenkungweni community, the school would pause class sessions so that the learners would fetch water in containers.

“I started teaching here in 2006, and things were really out of hand. Classes were paused and learners would travel a distance of about 1km to fetch water for the school. This water was for cleaning, drinking, cooking, etc”, Nxumalo explains.

Children can be negatively influenced by any educational disruption, and this can result to poor academic achievement of learners.

A Rotary Club tried to build the community a borehole but it would also run out of water.As means of ensuring that all children are educated for life, in a safe and nurturing environment, in order to lead productive and fulfilling lives, World Vision intervened and brought water closer to the school that currently has enrolment of 77 children.

“Since 2019, this school took a turnaround, thanks to World Vision. We have three tanks, fencing for our school gardens, tank stands and water is right inside these school premises, no one has to fetch water from rivers anymore!”, Nxumalo said.

 Nxumalo pointed out that having easier access to water has improved other challenges they faced as a school.

“A lot has changed; cases of learners complaining about stomach irritations caused by dirty water are a thing of the past; we have a school garden now, the school has definitely achieved proper hygiene and sanitation and, we cannot wait to see how our learners perform this academic year since they have been doing so well”, Nxumalo explained.

According to Nxumalo, bringing water closer to the school also solved underlying problems they faced with the community.

“When we didn’t have water, we had a lot of misunderstandings with the community, something that led to conflict. This is because their livestock would dirty the water in the Ncotjane river, a water source for us. Secondly, when Rotary Club tried to help us, they also felt like we should contribute more as a school. When this organization intervened, peace was restored”, she explained.  

World Vision serves children and families in some of the world's toughest places and ensures that all children have the right to a safe, inclusive and quality education.