With the weather starting to get noticeably colder in Masiphumelele we were delighted to be able to distribute more tracksuits to the children on Ukhnayo Primary School this week. Back in March we began to hand out track suits thanks to a donation from Will Bennett, James Williams, and Chris Norqual – three of the five founding members of American clothing company, SOMB, (SHIRT OFF MY BACK). This week a further 180 track suits were delivered to the school following financial support from Linda Dobbs, who has been a long-time supporter of our work.

Once again the Sewing Café have produced the tracksuits and the project is continuing to provide regular work the ladies. This batch was only small and medium track-suits with the large versions due to be completed next week. Yesterday saw a steady stream of grade 1 pupils arriving to be sized-up and kitted out with their new outfits.

Another of Masicorp’s long-time supporters was present to witness the tracksuit handover. Lord David Hacking has been a very generous supporter of Masicorp’s work and was visiting Masiphumelele to view progress on various projects before returning to the UK later this week. He also enjoyed seeing the happy faces of the students as they were collected between classes to pick-up their track suits. Looking ahead at the weather forecast and feeling the chill in the air around the school this week the delivery could not have come at a better time.