Poverty Wreaks Havoc At Jamataka

Pini Bothoko | Monday November 9, 2015 11:52

School going children at this village are alleged to be attending lessons on empty stomachs and fail to properly concentrate on their studies in the process, a situation that is worrying the school management. An insider at the school told The Monitor that the children look pale because of hunger which has necessitated the school management to involve parents to solve the matter.

The school management is said to have raised this concern to the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and the Village Development Committee (VDC), pleading for help as the situation affects the children’s education. It is reported that the trio held a meeting early this week in which a decision was taken for parents to be summoned for a kgotla meeting scheduled for November 27 to address the matter.

Despite being located 40km west of Francistown, the majority of people at this village live in abject poverty and survive on Ipelegeng as their main source of employment. There are no economic activities in the village and the best thing that people do is to subsist, as employment opportunities in the village are non-existent.

The majority of families in Jamataka village depend on the destitute government ration for survival. Asked about the matter, the chairperson of Jamataka VDC, Nomazo Dlamini, admitted that they are faced with the matter. He said that the school management has asked them to solve the matter because it is negatively affecting the children’s education.

“We held a meeting with the PTA and the school management in which we have decided to come up with ways in which we can resolve this matter,” said Dlamini. Dlamini said the PTA has volunteered to cook soft porridge and serve it to the pupils every morning before they attend classes.

Dlamini said they have discovered that some pupils have no food at their places and eat once everyday at school. “Although some families are provided with monthly food rations by government, we have discovered that some parents do not take care of their children but are in the habit of abusing alcohol,” said Dlamini adding that some children stay with their grandparents who struggle to put food on the table due to old age. Dlamini said the majority of youth in the village have a tendency of abandoning their kids and leaving them under the care of their parents to go and work for low paying jobs in towns.

Dlamini pleaded with members of the community to give them any kind of assistance in order to feed the learners. The village chief, Mosalagae Galebonwe, said that he has heard rumours about the matter and promised to follow it up. “I have heard that there will be a Kgotla meeting to address the matter,” said Galebonwe.

Galebonwe said the majority of families in Jamataka live in abject poverty, are unemployed and are struggling to feed their families. He said that the majority of the people are given the destitute ration that should last them up to a month but he does not know why the children are having little or no food at their homes. The school head of Jamataka Primary School declined to comment on the matter.