Mitchells Plain entertainer Deen Louw is kicking off the school year with his Back2School Programme, in partnership with the Western Cape Missing Persons Unit.
They hope to get enough stationery for 20 000 children in the Western Cape and have identified 30 schools in need.
WCMPU chairperson Candice Van der Rheede and her team also aims to create safety awareness talks in various communities.
Deen told the Daily Voice they need help in ensuring the children have stationery packs to start their new year on a positive note.
“We will be reaching out to local businesses and school districts and the community at large; those that can assist to help these children,” he says.
“We aim to raise enough stationery for 20 000 kids in and around the Western Cape and need stationery items such as A4 college exercise books, A4 192 page hardcover books, exam pads, flip files, HB pencils, erasers, 30cm rulers, 12-pack pencil crayons, 12-pack roll-up crayons, round nose scissors, glue sticks (Prit/Bostik), brown paper and plastic to cover books, reams of copy paper and more.”
Deen said they will make drop-off point details available on their social media platforms.
Van der Rheede spoke about the urgency to create safety awareness: “We are going to malls to speak to kids and parents about human trafficking and we are going to do this at different points of the stationery drive.
“Ninety percent of the time, perpetrators offer kids things to get them away, kidnap, hijack or abuse them.
“We don't want our children to have to ask others for help with stationery, this might put them at risk of being enticed and lured away by perps.”