I am sure that most literate people (and a helluva lot of illiterate people) have heard of the late Nelson Mandela. More about his life can be found here (thanks Wikipedia) for those who are interested, but in a nutshell he was a member of the African National Congress and was jailed for 27 years on Robben Island for his ‘crimes against the State’ whilst opposing apartheid in South Africa. He was later the first president of South Africa under our first true democratic nation.
Anyway, what this is about is a small part of his legacy that continues to change lives. Every year we have Mandela Day, where every citizen is asked to do 67 minutes of good for less fortunate people in the country; 67 being the number of years Mandela spent making this world a better place. The company I work for is a very keen supporter of this exercise and ensures that all staff are aware of Mandela Day, and they encourage us all to participate by funding a cause of our own choosing.
So this year our small team identified an informal settlement in Green Park which is basically a squatter camp. They have no ablutions at all and no formal infrastructure such as electricity, plumbing and roads. There is ONE tap for water.
The company gave us R30k to use as we saw fit, and we raised through donations another R30k. We appealed to all our colleagues for donations, as well as used clothes, toys, books etc. to distribute to the residents, with the major focus on the children.
(apologies, I do not know how to rotate here, but tilt your head you will get the idea )
So the first we identified was no place for the children to sit and do ‘structured’ stuff like homework, eat, play, read. So the major capex was to purchase and modify a container to act as a shelter for the children after school.
Next we had to make the inside a bit less austere than a container, so we purchased table and chairs, and made curtains.
We provided some ottomans for sitting on, but also with lids so the toys, books and puzzles could be safely stored when not in use
No electricity so we provided a bunch of LED lamps….
While all this was going on, some of the team, yours truly included, were busy creating small vegetable gardens, planting peas, cabbage, beetroot and spinach. To each ‘tire bed’ we added a companion plant to keep insects at bay.
And the gardening team…the oldest being the author… hopefully in future be referred to as ‘themagus’ {grin} {thought}..Would this work as verification??
Some other were preparing to make sausage dogs (known as boerewors rolls in South Africa) for 200 people, and still others were handing out sweet parcels to the children.
Boerewors…. This gets barbecued (braai’ed in our lingo) and cut into portions to go onto bread rolls with tomato sauce.
A common occurrence in these informal settlements is shack fires where a candle or lamp falls over during the night and rampant fires result. To this end we donated two fire extinguishers for the premises we were working on, and conducted hands on training with three adults who work on the premises
All in all, hopefully some joy was brought to these unfortunate people. It is a real eye opener and I find it very hard to allow my imagination free rein… knowing I am going home to a roof over my head, a hot shower and a warm dry bed.
There is so much need out there !!