The message that “You can dream and dream big” was passed on to pupils at Eros School by members of the Afrikaans.com group last Friday.
Eros School in Tarentaal Road, Bridgetown, caters for pupils with cerebral palsy and those who have learning difficulties.
Afrikaans.com, a website which encourages youth to continue speaking Afrikaans the way they learnt it growing up, unveiled a mural at the school to help the children feel proud of their language, school and identity.
The pupils were told not to believe the prejudice that Cape Flats Afrikaans is not proper Afrikaans.
Rene Arendse, an ambassador for Afrikaans.com, said pupils should not shy away from the language. The mural includes words often used on the Cape Flats such as “uitsa”, “bra”, “laaitie”, “sukses”, “awe”, and “glo” and is painted inside the school building.
Esme McClinton-Rose, a doctor at the school, said they were excited about the mural. She said Afrikaans was slowly dying out at the school with very few pupils speaking the language.
“Some people are ashamed of their Afrikaans especially people on the Cape Flats so we are hoping that this changes that. It also promotes Afrikaans reading as most children read English books,” she said.
Part of Afrikaans.com’s plan is to equip the school with a container library and Afrikaans reading books to improve pupil’s use and understanding of the language.
“This will hopefully make the language more exciting for them because many of our children can’t read Afrikaans. It will also teach them to have more respect for the language and be proud of themselves for speaking it. It will also encourage the English-speaking children to read Afrikaans books and speak Afrikaans,” she said.