The official handover of a new media centre to Menzi High School in Umlazi took place on the 19 August 2016. The construction of the media centre was enabled through a R1 million donation from the state owned insurance company Sasria and built by the Project Build Trust.

The south Durban school is among the top schools in the Umlazi District âˆ' one of the best performers in KZN. For the past five years the school has obtained a 100% pass rate for the matric exams as well as a 95% bachelor’s degree pass rate. The new media centre will contribute greatly to ensuring that learners
at the school are able to access the resources required to continue this trend. The media centre will be named in memory of Felix Mshololo, the school’s much loved principal who died unexpectedly last year, and who was instrumental in turning the school’s pass rate around.

Muntu Ntombela, current principal at Menzi High School said, “The media centre will continue to improve the quality of education at our school. The centre will also ensure that learners do not leave school early to visit other media centres in the area. However, there is still a need for more funding to further equip
the centre with appropriate resources.”

Project Build Trust

Project Build Trust is a nonprofit organisation that has been constructing educational buildings in KwaZulu-Natal for 40 years. More recently projects in Mpumalanga, the Free State and the Eastern Cape have been undertaken. Project Build has been involved in the construction of 6000 classrooms including libraries, laboratories, and computer rooms. Current projects include a house for disabled people, a transitional house for young people requiring mentoring, a preschool classroom in Yellowwood Park, a medical clinic in Happy Valley and a library in Cato Crest.

After three years as a fund raiser and ten years at the helm of the Project Build Trust, CEO Suzanne Edmunds is very passionate about the difference that the Trust can make to learners in poorly resourced schools and to the communities in which they build. She said, “An important part of any project is ensuring that the buy in from the key stakeholders in the various communities we work is
obtained and that the projects are sustainable.”

The Trust strives to empower independent building contractors, while creating employment and passes skills on to the communities with which they work. The Project Build Trust also offers Durban University
of Technology students the opportunity to work in their offices and at building sites in order to obtain work experience, which is required to complete their study programmes.

Project Build is dependent on the support of the donor community, which includes businesses and charitable trusts to carry out its important mandate of developing communities by building good infrastructure.

Consequently, the Trust is a vehicle for optimising socio economic development spend as well as obtaining enterprise development points.

www.sasria.co.za
www.projectbuild.org.za