July 27, 2006
By Thuli Ntuli
A COLOURFUL mural donated to the Johannesburg Hospital School on Monday, 24 July, means that learners now start each day in a more cheerful frame of mind.
Donated by Standard Bank, each of the 300 Picasso-inspired tiles making up the five-piece mural which covers half the entrance wall, carries a painted image and a message like Jesus Loves You with little red hearts and a shining sun.
"We want the mural to bring life, colour and joy to the children and we want it to encourage the children to express themselves in the form of art," said Mandie van der Spuy, Head of Arts Sponsorship at Standard Bank, which also donated R10 000 to the school.
"We will use the donation to build an outside playground facility for the children to play and get some fresh air, which forms a part of their recovery," said school principal Ronel van Biljon.
She continued: "We plan to use the roof on the sixth floor for our playground and to have palisade fencing and artificial grass covering the ground so the children will be able to play during break."
"The rooftop ground will be developed with trees and flowers to create a welcoming environment for learners in the wards. We wish to thank our loyal supporters for their donations, but we will, however, be asking for continued support and input for this project. The completion of this ground will be the first for any hospital school in the country," said Van Biljon.
The school, which is based at Johannesburg Hospital in Parktown, allows learners from Grade R to Grade 12 who are admitted to the hospital for a long time, to continue with their education.
Patients include children who suffer from chronic diseases such as cardiac, renal and kidney failure, sugar diabetes, cancer of the liver and bones and children who have difficulties reading and writing.
"The art will play an important role to children with difficulty learning as they understand visual art better than writing and reading," said one of the teachers, Lydia Nthatisi Ramosoeu.
The objective of the school is to enable the children to return to their normal schooling environment without having to repeat a grade or fall behind in the curriculum.
The school, which operates with the support of the Gauteng Department of Education, is attended by about 156 children, has 13 teachers and 10 classrooms. It has been operating since the early 1930s.
Standard Bank decided to paint a mural for the school after their Picasso and Africa exhibitions which helped raise money for charity.
Born in Spain in 1881, world-renowned artist Pablo Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 92. In his lifetime he produced 20 000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and ceramics.
Appealing to individual members of the public to paint a tile and donate R5, Standard Bank pledged to double the amount donated. This resulted in a rand total of R10 000.
Those who painted the murals include children, professional artists and celebrities like Miss South Africa Thuli Sithole and Miss Teen South Africa Bertha-Marie Le Roux.
"The school is a public school. The only difference is that the children here have chronic diseases that have to be monitored on a daily basis by professional doctors and nurses," explained Ramosoeu.
"The children are not allowed to go outside to play because there is no playground and inside the hospital they cause trouble. They run around making a noise and kicking a ball on the corridors, which is why we desperately need help to build the ground," said Ramosoeu.
The school, which starts at 7.30am and ends at 2.15pm daily, offers activities such as computer skills, life skills programmes, arts and crafts, singing and therapy for students with reading and writing difficulties.
"Some of the kids have lung problems, and if they sit down for a long time their lungs secret a lot of mucus. Some ended up dying, which is another reason for a playground for them to play netball, soccer, basket ball and other sporting activities," said Ramosoeu.
One of the Grade 9 bone cancer patients, Siyanda Tshangana, said: "We will go crazy if we keep on staying here for the whole day without physical exercise."
Sharing these sentiments was a Grade 10 patient with kidney failure, Nonhlanhla Khumalo, who, sporting uniform grey trousers and blue shirt, said: "As sick as we are, we can prove a point to other schools when it comes to sporting activities."
For more information, call 011 488 3292.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
