Help at hand for starving deaf pupils after protest

Good Samaritans continue to pour in their support for the starving pupils of an Eastern Cape school for the deaf.

Gift of the Givers and KwaZulu-Natal-based St Vincent School for the Deaf has stepped in to give food parcels to the St Thomas School for the Deaf after their pupils allegedly went without food for two days last week.

Gift of the Givers will tomorrow also hand over food, bedding, toiletries and equipment worth R200000.

This is while St Vincent, through their headmistress Ingrid Parkin, has already donated food parcels to the ailing school on Friday.

St Vincent donated 25 loaves of bread, 3kg margarine, 10 x 2kg French polony, 10 x 2kg smoked viennas, 5kg instant porridge, 600 hot dog rolls, 5 x biggest mixed fruit jam and 5 x largest peanut butter, food supplied by Shoprite Checkers in Stutterheim.

Parkin said St Vincent School for the Deaf had a further R4000 on standby if more food is needed.

The pupils at the King William’s Town-based school earlier last week protested after claiming they had not been fed on Monday and Tuesday.

Gift of the Givers provincial coordinator in the Eastern Cape, Dr Trudy Nel, said the food they brought to the school was worth R6500.

“When we read the Dispatch, we felt we should intervene,” she said.

Deaf SA Eastern Cape chairman Khumbulani Mshiywa said he was angry when the pupils were not fed.

“However, we are happy now to see someone come and help us like this. Our children will now be able to study on full stomachs,” he said.