New Loos for youngsters

A South African Primary School which serves a deprived area now has modern toilets and improved teacher facilities thanks, in part, to a £1,000 grant from Taunton Vale Rotary. Gillitts Primary School is on the outskirts of Kloof, a town with a population of just under 30 thousand, approximately 26 km north-west of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.

Since 2011 the school student population has more than doubled.  Though new classrooms have been built, very young pupils faced a 200 metre walk to go to the loo.

Young pupils faced a long walk to the far end of the site if caught short

The Rotary Club of Kloof was approached by the School to convert an unused, former library building into a toilet block to serve the two new classrooms which are at the far end of the school site. RC Kloof approached Taunton Vale as there are long standing links between the clubs.

A grant from Taunton Vale Rotary covered nearly one third of the construction costs and now there are 3 new toilets each for the boys and the girls.

New modern flush toilets and hand-wash facilities

 Local Kloof Rotarian, Tony Robson says: “The company we awarded the work to is a ‘not for profit’ company and is owned by a Rotarian. The sub-contractor is also a Rotarian, so it was all within Rotary. This led to us getting a lot more than we expected for our money, in that the project also created a small staff room for teachers in classrooms remote from the main school buildings and a space for teaching robotics. The quality of the finishes in the toilet area also greatly exceeded our expectations.

Work in progress - clearing out old walls to make way for the new facilities

 “Following our decision to proceed with the toilet project, the school is now forging ahead with two new classrooms in the same area of the grounds.

“On behalf of the members of RC Kloof I would like to thank the members of  Taunton Vale Rotary for their support, without which the project would not have been possible”.

New staff area and storage