Minister Marais launches Tygerberg and Northern District’s mask activation
Yesterday, Minister Anroux Marais launched the Tygerberg and Northern District’s Mask Activation, scheduled to take place every week in the area.
To kick off the activation, Minister Marais received the generous donation of 1500 masks from Old Mutual at Riverton Primary School in Bishop Lavis. Minister used the opportunity to meet the Principal, MathsMoms, YeBoneers and staff to motivate the importance of wearing masks. The Community Health Forum was also in attendance and received masks for distribution at shopping centres in the area.
Minister Marais added masks to the Treasure Box @home learning packs and said, “With all the disruptions in schooling, after school programmes have become more important than ever. Today, I am proud to see that as part of our DCAS Youth in Service Programme, we are supporting learners with physical @home learning packs. The Treasure Box is a family resource to support family activities and learning while the YeBo packs provide much needed literacy and numeracy resources to support learners catch up all they have missed. The treasure box has instructions to make your own mask and we look forward to learners educating their families about masks and thanks to Old Mutual, with the @home packs, we can now send masks home to the parents and caregivers”.
Thereafter, Minister Marais stopped at the Delft Community Kitchen and met the Delft Action Network (DAN) and Neighbourhood Watch to encourage mask wearing and the 5 golden rules of hygiene. The Delft Action Network has played a key role in helping us manage the pandemic. They have assisted with providing food to our most vulnerable, with quarantine and isolation support and they are now making masks to ensure everyone in the community has at least one mask. As the local mask making project kicks off, Minister Marais provided DAN with 200 masks to boost this very important initiative.
Together with our Head of Department: Mr. Brent Walters, and Old Mutual’s Savarion Arendse, Minister Marais then joined a meeting run by Live2Learn to train Principals and Wallacedene ECDs on masks and its importance in saving lives, at which each principal received a pack of masks.
At the meeting Minister Marias said, “As ECDs reopen, Principals and NGOs fulfil a critical role in helping our younger generation learn the 5 golden rules of hygiene and to wear a mask. Children learn best from the adults around them and copy their behaviour, therefore it was pivotal to provide masks for the principals to give to any parents arriving to drop off their children without a mask. We wholeheartedly thank Learn2Live and all other NGOs for your support in stopping the spread, saving lives and staying safe”.
At the last stop in Wallacedene, Minister Marais joined a MOD report back meeting and provided masks to coaches and engaged on the role of sports and arts practitioners as activators for masks in hotspot areas. During the engagement, Minister Marais said, “As coaches you are role models in our communities and a powerful influence in helping people understand why wearing masks is so important. To assist you in your very important task, we are happy to equip you with masks provided by Old Mutual as you may find many without masks in this area. In this way, you are then enabled to provide masks to those most in need of them while educating on its importance and essentially assisting us to stop the spread, save lives and stay safe”.