mandela day at the thembalitsha projects in grabouw!

always cleaning windows

today we celebrated nelson mandela's birthday in style, south africans are encouraged to engage in 67 minutes of social responsibility, and as a charity who work with our communities in many different ways thembalitsha are always inundated by people, schools, organisations and companies and or their employees who are keen to help out for their 67 minutes.

maz shares our vision with the team from parliament

as we posted on monday our mandela day started early with a visit from the ACVV old age home but today not only did village of hope benefit from visitors our sister project, thembacare grabouw, also received some willing volunteers.

who's enjoying their 67 minutes the most?

the first to arrive at thembacare were some children from the local high school who had come to clean the windows, they even bought their own water from school!....

they were soon followed by a team of over 20 people from the south african parliament who had read about thembacare and the village of hope on the internet and were keen to come and see what we were involved in. after a visit to the inpatient unit some of the visitors took a trip out into the community to make a home visit with sister portia (our outpatient sister who is also responsible for the medical care of the children at the village of hope)...the rest of the team came up and played with the children (and their toys, see the picture of tutu playing on the trampoline!).

sr joyce receiving the gifts of bedding for thembacare

we then returned to say our goodbyes at thembacare where the team made a wonderful donation of some much needed new bed sheets and pillow cases with the commitment to continue to work towards some ongoing support for the projects which they were truly blown away by.

upon our return to thembacare we met the local grabouw rugby club who had provided the food for us to provide the hot meal which our patients enjoy as part of their nutritional diet on their road to recovery or as we support them in their last days of life.

cwp managers discussing who we can partner
during their mandela day visit

in the afternoon both projects received a visit from the CWP (community works programme) managers who were not only interested in viewing the projects during their mandela day 67 minutes but were interested in how both parties can benefit from the work that we are involved in to provide employment to the poorest of the poor who are on their government run programme.

thanks to all who came, for your wonderful gifts and also the promise of continued support, whether that be physical, financial or the promise to pray for us as we give our 67 minutes each and everyday!....and last but not least happy birthday nelson, God bless you not only today but for the legacy that you have left for the people of this country.