Long after the floods, Ford South Africa employees showed up for the children of the Eastern Cape

When the floods hit the Eastern Cape earlier this year, Coega Primary School was one of the places that felt it most. For the children who learn there, a place that should feel safe and familiar suddenly became broken and uncertain.

At the time, the area received support from Ford Philanthropy through our disaster relief partner, Gift of the Givers. That help mattered in the first days of the crisis, but when the water goes down and the headlines move on, the families and communities affected are still there, and recovery takes much longer.

The team from our Struandale Engine Plant understood this, and they chose to do something about it. As part of this year’s Global Caring Month, they went to Coega Primary School to support a community that is still healing. The school was badly damaged, and some of its classrooms became unusable. The team chose this project as a disaster relief response to the needs that remain.

On the day, the team went straight to work, cleaning up the damaged classrooms. By the end of the day, they had refurbished two of them, so that learners can walk back into them and learn again. They also made time to play with the children, sharing laughter and bringing a little joy and normality back to the school after a very difficult year.

Two classrooms may seem small next to the scale of a disaster. But for the learners who can use them again, they mean a safe place to learn and a reminder that people care. The visit shows that caring for our communities does not end when the crisis does. It continues through the long months of rebuilding, carried by people who choose to keep showing up.

Watch the video to see the team at work and hear what the day meant to them.