Robertson Winery celebrated Mandela Day this year, by donating 50 tablets to learners at Nkqubela Primary School in Robertson.
The winery established the Really Good Library at the school in March 2021 truly bringing to life the ‘small town with a big heart’ ethos that Robertson Winery stands for.
As part of the device handover, Robertson Winery brought together over 30 parents and grandparents of learners at the school – all part of the Robertson Winery family – to have their hands painted and to make their mark on a piece of art to be hung at the library.
RW Marketing Manager Ankia Niemann says that while the library was designed with vivid illustrations highlighting what makes the Robertson valley so special, they wanted to take that a step further by bringing the many hands of the community into the school.
“Just as it takes many hands to make our wine, so it takes many hands to raise a child and we wanted that heritage, legacy and sense of community to be visually displayed for the kids to see,” says Niemann.
Robertson Winery celebrated Mandela Day this year, by donating 50 tablets to learners at Nkqubela Primary School in Robertson.
Representing Robertson
The library itself, which is available to over 1 000 learners at the school, is covered in imagery representing what the Robertson valley is all about, a plentiful valley of wine, horses and roses depicted as something the children can be proud of; with interactive elements specially created for the learners to find hidden letters in the scenes.
Mr John Ngonyama, principal at Nkqubela Primary School, says that the impact of the library at the school has been profound.
“The library has been such an incredible blessing to the learners. We were all really struggling with getting the learners excited about reading and now they are always in there.” He goes on to say that the children love spending time in the library and the teachers have noticed such a great improvement in their reading skills.
Niemann says that in the words of Mr Mandela himself, “It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.”
She says that Robertson Winery has focused on giving back to the community that has interacted with and worked at the winery for many generations, and Mandela Day is a wonderful opportunity to bring this to life www.robertsonwinery.co.za
The handover of the tablets.
ALSO WATCH: Robertson Winery library
ALSO READ: Winetech 2021 senior cellar assistant workshops
The Winetech 2021 workshops for senior cellar assistants were facilitated by qualified winemakers in the participating districts Stellenbosch, Worcester/Robertson, Wellington, Vredendal and Upington.
Participation in the workshops is free, but cellar assistants must be bilingual and in possession of the Wine Training SA SKOP 3 certificate. Participating cellars received notes, attendance registers, confirmation of attendance letters (instead of certificates) and a letter confirming the financial value of the workshops. The names of the cellar assistants were placed on the industry’s LMS data base.
Senior cellar assistants had the opportunity to learn more about sparkling wines. This was a fitting topic as the first MCC sparkling wine was produced in South Africa 50 years ago. Participants learned more about the history of sparkling wines; sparkling wines of the world; various sparkling wine styles; South African sparkling wines; legal aspects, as well as the production of South African sparkling wines. During the tasting, cellar assistants compared a French sparkling wine to different South African sparkling wines.
An independent, qualified social worker, Greta Grobler, facilitated an interactive presentation at the Wellington and Worcester/Robertson workshops on how to manage stress in a responsible and positive manner.
