The thought of her father beating her in a family competition to see who could create the most eco-bricks for a Hogsback NGO saw a primary school teacher co-opting her pupils into the competition and beating her family hands down – all in the name of doing good.
Afrikaans teacher AnneMarie Roelofse, from Kabega Primary School, convinced the 800-pupil school to assist in the building of a library by making eco-bricks and collecting books for children in a poverty-stricken community.
Eco-bricks are plastic drinking bottles packed with non-biodegradable waste to make reusable building blocks used to build houses.
To date, the school has collected more than 1,000 books in exchange for the pupils wearing civvies to school and just under 200 bricks for the 10,000-brick structure.
Deputy principal Corrie van Eck said it had adopted the project because it was in line with the school’s programme of being “green”.
“The school has a programme called the ‘Waste Warriors’ which also built bricks for a national primary schools competition in Gariep [in the Free State],” Van Eck said.
“A group of six youngsters collect and sort recyclables that are sent to The Waste Trade Company for the school.
“The school also has another project called the Groenspore (Green Prefects) which does beach and river clean-ups over weekends.”
According to Van Eck, the school has won the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa green flag status three times for implementing environmental, ecotourism, education and youth development programmes.
“When Mevrou [Mrs] Roelofse approached us to assist as a school we did not hesitate, even other children in our school involved their families as well as their modelling groups,” she said.
“Everyone is involved in some form of recycling, some bring doppies [bottle lids], some bread tags.
“[When] she started making the bricks we all got involved.
“The culture of the school has changed.”
Roelofse, who has been handling the programme with her grade 2s, said they had loved collecting the books and making the bricks, but at times they had loved it too much.
“When we were sorting out the books, I had to constantly stop them from reading instead of sorting the books,” she said.
She said she and her family were attracted to the NGO because they wanted to be ecofriendly while promoting community building, social cohesion and skills development.
Roelofse said this was also a lesson on privilege for the children.
“I am happy that the children became involved because they are very privileged to have a library – this is making them save the environment but also help the community.
“On December 8, Jikani [the NGO] will have a trail [hike] where everyone who is collecting will bring their bricks.
“We [the school] have until the end of this month [November] to donate reading books and make more bricks.
“We are hoping to surpass our target of 200 bricks and arrive at the trail with a bang,” she said.
Grade 6 pupil Joshua Flugel, 11, said he had joined the Groenspore team because he wanted to help the environment and gain popularity at the school as he was new.
Of the project, he said: “We have gone to two beaches and one river so far and we cleaned up lots of plastic.
“We as Groenspore help The Waste Trade Company by getting 12 tons of recycling per term and then we sort everything for the company and they turn it into recyclable furniture.
“I really wanted to help out at the school and I thought that [because] I only joined the school at the start of grade 5, I wanted to help and be popular.”
A grade 2 pupil from Roelofse’s Afrikaans class, Ilse Roos, 8, who brought three books to donate to the project, said being involved in the programme had made her very happy because she was helping others.