AutoZone, the largest privately owned automotive parts retailer and wholesaler in Southern Africa, has donated R60 000 to St Vincent School for the Deaf.
Principal of the school Ingrid Parkin said, “An enormous project is being undertaken which will take two to three years to complete. We are upgrading the vocational section of the school which caters for our less academically inclined learners.”
“To this end we are appointing a deputy principal and head of department to work towards improving our curriculum and acquiring SETA accreditation for a number of practical courses such as motor mechanics, photography, metalwork, woodwork, stained glass, jewellery design and upholstery. Alongside these practical courses we will also be offering life skills, numeracy, literacy and project management.”
“All this will be aimed at increasing the employment opportunities for our students with proper NQF certification for the subjects they studied.”
Shane Kennedy, marketing executive, AutoZone said the group’s CSI strategy is to focus on children and the disabled.
“AutoZone is involved in a range of social responsibility initiatives that prioritise learning, nutrition and job creation initiatives within disadvantaged communities. Currently AutoZone has over 10 CSI initiatives running,” he said.
Mrs Parkin said the school is finding that with each year’s enrolment, the children tend to have a number of barriers to learning in addition to their deafness.
“Our core academic stream of learners has shrunk somewhat as a result, and in our efforts to serve the deaf community we have to adapt the subjects and courses that we offer to cater for this diversity of needs,” she said.
“The donation will be directly utilised towards the purchase of the necessary teaching equipment within our vocation centre.”
“We also promote deaf awareness in the hearing world. The school has a variety of visitors ranging from students to researchers, some from overseas. St Vincent shares a campus with Pridwin School, a unique venture between a hearing and a deaf school. Not only do they share sports facilities but the learners meet regularly during breaks. Pridwin learners also receive sign language lessons,” said Mrs Parkin.
“Although sign language is the advocated medium of instruction, our staff are convinced that we would be failing our learners if we did not teach them to speak, enabling them to communicate in the mode they feel comfortable.”
The school also assists parents in coming to terms with their deaf child by counselling and parent support groups. Parents and family members are taught sign language to communicate with their child.
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