The star of Netflix’s original series, Blood and Water, Amamkele Qamata, handed over R20 000 to 20 girls from Grade 12 in Nyanga High School in Ngcobo who are performing well in their studies, recently.
According to the principal of the school, Khulile Qamata, Amamkele told him that she had a vision of assisting needy girls who are doing well at school.
Qamata said she wanted to know how many learners were paying school fees in this school.
“I told her that each learner pays R1 500 per year. Then she took a decision that she would assist 20 girls with R1 000 each for their school fees, but only those who had shown academic improvement and needed financial relief. We then said, as the school, it would be better if she did the handover during our achievers’ day, which was held recently,” said Qamata.
He said what was more important was that Amamkele ‘adopted’ these girls, stating that she would continue checking up on them. Qamata added that, as the school, they regularly host achievers’ days, where they award learners who were doing well, from Grade 8 to Grade 12.
He said they did this quarterly, choosing the top ten from each class.
“So, each quarter, we hold a celebration for 50 learners and this motivates them a lot. It’s a beautiful occasion that we host every term with serious competition.
“It inspires all the learners; the competition is always very high because there are always some changes on how our learners are performing in class, where you find that the learner was in a lower position but changes to top 10 in the next quarter.”
He said they decided to inform other business owners around in Ngcobo who also donated R53 000 in total for 53 learners.
He said they were very happy because there are some households where the situation is very difficult now, due to COVID-19. He said this also teaches their learners that people can receive help from the strangers.
“One day they (the learners) will also do the same to other people because that is part of life – to assist people even if you don’t know them.”
