ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT INTERNET CONNECTION

Providing access to educational resources [remotely for learners in across the country].

Every time you swipe your MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card, you help make a difference. We’ve been so inspired by our customers and staff who are all doing their part to get South Africa through this lockdown. With your support, we’ve been able to ramp up MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet activities, with a specific focus for each week of lockdown.

In those crucial first days of lockdown, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme aimed their focus on what was most needed at the time: medical safety equipment, masks, and protective clothing. We, together with Woolworths, partnered with the Gift of the Givers, donating R500 000 to help get these supplies to those working on the COVID-19 frontlines.

With schools temporarily closed, we also increased our focus on education. In partnership with MySchool education partner, WorkSheet Cloud, we introduced live streaming of English, Maths and Science classes with qualified teachers from Grades 3 – 7. This was made available to all learners in SA, free of charge, and reached over 700 000 students in the first 10 days.

Happy, healthy kids learn better. That’s why in addition to school work, the Woolworths Educational Programme shared learning content on health, wellness, and nutrition; and made available hygiene guidelines that were specially developed for children by UNICEF.

We also worked with Grow Educare, donating R100 000 to help fund 20 Educare centres and support them with necessary essentials during this difficult period.

Week three brought us to the MyVillage part of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet activities, meaning it was time to focus on making a difference for South Africa and her people. The MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme donated R500 000 to the Solidarity Fund, in addition to the R500 000 already donated to the Gift of the Givers, to help support and feed families and communities in need.

MyPlanet took front and centre for week four, which was all about animals and the environment. With their usual fundraising activities in lockdown for a few weeks, animal welfare organisations around South Africa found themselves in a desperate situation. To help alleviate some of the burden, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet donated an additional R500 000 to 20 animal welfare organisations across South Africa, carefully selected from our beneficiary list.

Washing hands regularly is one of the best ways to combat the spread of COVID-19, but as we unfortunately know, many South Africans do not have adequate access to clean water or hand-washing facilities.

MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet donated R600 000 to the Woolies Water Fund to help extend their efforts to get water tanks and filtration systems into schools across Western and Eastern Cape. They are also upgrading previously installed systems with bulk handwashing stations and soap.

Every time you swipe your MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card, you make a difference to schools, communities and the environment. In April, R8 million was distributed to beneficiaries of the programme to help with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak – one of our most significant contributions to schools and organisations to date.

“Make every swipe count”  is Caring in Action (really gives back sustainably).

To all our customers, staff and partners, thank you for enabling us to do what we do. We’ll continue working to give back, just as we always have. Once again, you have proven that together we can make a difference.

If you have not linked your Woolworths Store and Loyalty cards to the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Programme, go ahead and do so here.