THREE established non-profit organisations have joined forces to reach out to learners during lockdown with interactive content in a TV show called QuaranTV.
Masifunde Learner Development, Masinyusane and United Through Sport have made it their primary objective to reach as many primary and high school learners as possible with positively stimulating content.
Townships in Port Elizabeth are feeling the consequences of the 21-day lockdown with a lack of reliable food sources for learners who depended on the school feeding schemes, loss of income by informal traders and day labourers, and a rapid increase of reported gender-based violence cases within the communities.
There are many learners in challenging domestic situations without any positive stimulation and little or no resources to keep themselves entertained. Yet, most of them have access to TV.
“What we offer the children shall be interactive. TV is too often one-way traffic,” said Xabiso Zweni, QuaranTV host and drama coach at Masifunde.
“Our programme shall activate and stimulate our young viewers – just as our organisation’s programmes do, too,” said Zweni.
The general approach is to film content from the organisation’s core programmes for social media and for local TV station, Mpuma Kapa, formerly known as Bay TV, on channel 260.
The topics featured are drama, music, visual arts, health (Masifunde), academics/literacy (Masinyusane) and meditation, cooking and sports (United Through Sport).
QuaranTV is aired Monday to Friday at 17:30 for 30 minutes.
“All three organisations focus on education and activation of children and youth in their own specific way,” said Fiks Mahola, co-founder of Masinyusane.
“To sit at home without being able to work with our learners directly in a phase when they most probably need our assistance most did not feel right. Together we created the idea to launch QuaranTV.”
