ZOE NGOMBANE
After months of recovery from Rag procession hangovers and the blisters under many feet, it can finally be said that the lives of students as well as the Pretoria community, will be changing after the procession that took place on 20 February.
Residences and day houses reached out their cans to an estimated crowd of 30 000 people. As a result, the Rag committee managed to collect R35 000.
These funds will be going into the Tusho portfolio and will be distributed into the respective charities.
Tusho is a charity portfolio and a division of Rag which heads the distribution of funds to different charities. Each residence is required to team up with the Rag committee on projects to help in the raising of funds. The residences go out and find sponsors, while working towards the creation and completion of their floats for the procession. Although the procession presents a big opportunity for the residences to raise a lot of funds, donations are not collected in just one day. The residences all receive their fundraising cans in February and are given four months, from then until early in May to raise funds. All of the residences and day houses decide what their final target is. The funds raised from the can donations amount to R35 000 at this stage, with some that still need to be paid in. According to Lesego Moeketsi, Tuks Rag chairperson, the Rag committee estimates that the total amount of the donations will be approximately R70 000, which equals the amount raised last year.
Even though the procession was a success, Moeketsi admits that there were some challenges. One of the challenges was that the students had difficulties with collecting money from the bystanders. “The students could not break formation and go to the spectators,” said Moeketsi. This was due to the restrictions by the Metro Police.
“It is the students’ spirit and hard work that has grown the procession into the success that it is today,” said Moeketsi. “With the ongoing support of our sponsors and service providers, it can only get better.”
So next year make sure that you join all the residences and day houses so they give back to those less privileged.
Photo: Michelle Prins
