Over two hundred disadvantaged pupils from Mid-Illovo will receive a brand new Uzwelo school backpack, made possible through entrants who participated in the recent Husqvarna Classic Mid-Illovo Mountain Bike Challenge and Trail Run.
Each year, race organisers help build and support the community through various initiatives. This year, race organisers invited entrants to add a R130 donation to their race entry to buy an Uzwelo school bag to help needy schoolchildren in the area. A total of 218 Uzwelo school bags were pledged and will be donated to pupils from Ondini Primary and Arden Primary in Mid-Illovo.
The Uzwelo Bags initiative, spearheaded by Expand a Sign, sees thousands of metres of their waste textile fabric donated to teams of sewers from underprivileged backgrounds to make bags and earn a living that puts food on the table for their families, funds education and provides upliftment for their communities.
Each Uzwelo school backpack has a built-in poncho that covers both the child and the school bag, ensuring that children are kept dry and warm on their journey to school.
Uzwelo’s goal is to provide 50,000 school bags to underprivileged school children this year. ‘We appeal to the community to be a part of changing lives by pledging R130 to donate a new school bag to an underprivileged child,’ said Tanya Bailey, Uzwelo COO
