Fannie Sebolela, head of Khensani Primary School in Soshanguve, Pretoria, is “always on the move”. When he is not in the classroom, he is out and about calling on company executives to raise funds for his school.
He recently secured a generous donation from BMW South Africa, which has enabled the school to provide meals to poor learners, over and above the government’s school feeding scheme.
Sebolela does not write letters to corporations; he invites potential donors to the school to see for themselves what they will be supporting. This strategy has yielded great success.
He has also secured support from Dole, a vegetable and fruit producer. The company provides fruit to the school and funded a borehole that is used to water a food garden in the schoolyard. Not only do learners benefit by eating fresh produce, they also gain practical skills on how to start up their own gardens at home.
With many of the children cared for by grandmothers, Sebolela has made sure they are involved in the programme so that they too learn how to plant their own gardens. He has set aside time to visit each woman to inspect their gardens and give them advice.
The women are empowered to be self-sufficient and, in some households, the food gardens have led to a reduction, if not a complete elimination, of hunger.
Sebolela has also managed to raise funds to have additional classes built. This has gone a long way to alleviating the problem of congestion because the school attracts a great number of learners every year.
Fannie Sebolela won the National Teacher Award for Excellence in primary school leadership.