ST EDWARD the Confessor School, Daisy Hill, had its first ever Africa Day on March 28 to raise awareness about global poverty and help fund a fellow parishioner’s upcoming mission to Pretoria, South Africa.
Students made gold-coin donations and spent time beading jewellery, creating masks, telling stories and listening to tribal music.
The money will assist Linda Norris, who is married to former St Edward’s principal Mike Norris, in making her second trip to Pretoria as part of the Christian-based relief and development organisation World Hope’s Memory Book Project.
There Linda will do “scrapbooking” in a house of 19 children – aged between 14 months and 14 years – who are either abandoned, orphaned or refugees from surrounding African countries.
She said this would involve taking photos and documenting their thoughts as a way to help them feel significant.
“They need to have a sense of identity and know they won’t be forgotten,” she said.
“And it’s really important for them to know they can be someone and don’t have to resort to prostitution or joining gangs.
“We can’t cure all their problems but we can do this to give them hope.”
In the lead-up to Africa Day, Linda gave presentations to each St Edward’s class on the children she was going to work with, hoping the students would better understand how their charity was going to be used.
She introduced students to Kinky Winky, who Linda said was one of her main reasons for returning to the South African capital city.
“When I went to the safe house last year I met Kinky Winky who was 14 months old, and her mother had been leaving her in the house all day while she would go and try to get money,” Lynda said.
“She was dehydrated and her skin was dried up, so she had been scratching herself badly, and she couldn’t do anything except lie on the floor.
“But we got her onto the bottle until she started moving and crawling again, and when she got herself back up, the change in her personality was incredible.
“This was something I just couldn’t let go.”
St Edward’s assistant principal for religious education (APRE) Joe Tracey said he hoped Africa Day would be the start of an ongoing relationship between his students and the children of Pretoria.
“We want to take photos of our kids so that the people who Linda goes to help can see them and connect with our faces,” he said.
Linda will embark on her two-week mission in June, but hopes to eventually spend longer periods in South Africa as an educator with her husband.
