B Sonjica: Baswa le Meetse (Youth in Water) Awards

10 March 2006

Programme Director,
Deputy President,
Deputy Ministers of Education, Science and Technology,
Eastern Cape MEC for the Department of Agriculture, honourable Mr Gugile
Nkwinti, who made a special trip to be here today,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee and the members of the portfolio
Committee on Water Affairs and Forestry
Honourable members of parliament
Members of the diplomatic missions
Principals, educators, parents, learners and
Honoured guests

Molweni, good afternoon

I am very delighted to be here today with the Deputy President and all of
you to honour our children and celebrate their achievements. Today, I will not
say much the Deputy President will do the main address. Mine is just to give
you an overview of why we are gathered here today.

We are here to announce the national winners, the champions who participated
in the Baswa Le Meetse Awards 2006. We will also launch the educational
resource materials and award those educators who participated in the
development and testing of the materials. The learners are eligible to grand
prizes that will benefit them and their communities.

This auspicious event is one of the activities of the first ever Sanitation
Week campaign that we launched on Tuesday, 7 March 2006, in Tarkastad, in the
Eastern Cape. I want you to note that the Sanitation Week campaign is a new
initiative which is as a result of the United Nations (UN) resolution in Dakar,
in December 2004 where a decision was taken to raise the profile of sanitation.
An observation was made that the focus is always on water and that sanitation
is treated as a backyard business yet central to people’s health and being. It
was a big and bold step by the Dakar conference to make sanitation part of the
mainstream of the programmes of governments.

The Sanitation Week campaign is the first of its kind in South Africa and it
is the first in the history of the world.

Sanitation week is aimed at raising the profile of sanitation, health and
hygiene. Our theme this year is “Washing of Hands for a Healthy Life.”

Baswa Le Meetse is one of the sub-programmes of the “2020 Vision Programme”
of our Department. “Vision 2020” is a school based education programme which
seeks to educate the broader society about water and sanitation related issues.
We took a conscious approach to create awareness around water and sanitation
through children to ensure sustainability among other things. We are
collaborating with the Department of Education through this programme in order
to ensure that water and sanitation are well preached.

The Outcomes Based Education (OBE) encourages learners to do projects that
stimulate their minds and be solution orientated. This is the context within
which my Department initiated projects such as Baswa Le Meetse. The project
targets grade six learners who convey education messages through arts medium to
their communities. This year they were guided by the theme “Washing of Hands,
Use and Care of Sanitation Facilities for a Healthy Life.”

The award recognises the role of youth in education and awareness campaigns.
We first run competitions in the districts and these culminate to the national
event.

Today we will be entertained through spectacular performances with
captivating and educating messages by aspirant actors, poets and artists of our
land. The Baswa le Meetse awards have become an inspirational and symbolic
feature in our calendar as they encapsulate the links between water,
sanitation, arts, culture and the youth.

We are committed to nurture the children’s talent and encourage them to
choose careers in the water sector. Through this initiative, Deputy President,
we hope that the talents and potential of our children to be engineers and
scientists would be unleashed. Through this initiative we hope to equip our
country with appropriate skills that will contribute to Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), which is very close to your
heart.

Programme Director; let me thank the Ministers of Education, Health, Arts
and Culture, Science and Technology, Environmental Affairs. To the educators,
the parents and the sponsors, your support in this project and others is highly
appreciated and thank you for making it a success.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry
10 March 2006