Ubuntu in action: donate R50 towards children’s facial surgery
SMALL efforts can make a big difference. That’s the message from the Smile Foundation, which is asking South Africans to make a small donation towards the foundation’s Win a Car fund-raiser to help it make a big difference in children’s lives.
“The foundation was founded at the request of Mr Nelson Mandela – an honourable man who believed in the power of community, especially community coming together to help others.
“That is the idea behind this fundraiser; it is true Ubuntu in action. As South Africans an act of responsible kindness will change the outcome of the lives of children living with facial DAVID Monyae writes about the significantly high number of people wallowing in poverty worldwide. He goes on to say Africa could learn from China.
He says China has singlehandedly reduced absolute poverty by 66.6% since it opened up its economy in 1978. However, the one thing Mr Monyae has not said in his article is that China for years had a one child per family policy. This is our elephant in the room that everyone, including politicians, is too scared to bring up.
Worldwide, there are too many of us fighting for space, housing, electricity, water, health care, schooling… The list is endless.
It is not only in this country, as we well know. Another article in the Cape Times this morning shows the NHS in England is simply not coping with the burgeoning numbers and that crowded emergency departments could lead to deaths.
So until governments get together and have programmes to get people to reduce the number of children in their families, this world is on a hiding to nothing. abnormalities. We come together as the Rainbow Nation being bonded by this act of kindness.
“Your R50 changes not just one life but the lives of families and future generations to come.
“It shows that we South Africans care,” says Marc Lubner, co-founder and executive chairman of the Smile Foundation.
The foundation is dedicated to providing funding and support for children who need facial reconstructive surgery.
Smile collaborates with academic hospitals nationally, to facilitate these life-changing surgeries for children as young as a few months to young
where the ash needs to solidify. The height of the boiler space is designed to allow the ash to solidify before it reaches the banks of superheater tubes above the furnace.
The dry ash is then carried through the tube banks as dust. When sub-standard coals are burnt, the temperature at which the molten ash solidifies is not known, so there is a very real risk that the molten ash will solidify and stick within the banks of superheater tubes, forming a clinker. That clinker will grow with continued use of sub-standard coals, causing disruption to the flow of gas, reduction of the surface area of the superheater banks and, possibly, it will grow to a size where it will detach itself from the tube banks and fall to the bottom of the furnace, some 100m below.
A clinker of, say, 20kg can do a tremendous amount of damage when falling from that height.
I therefore ask the executives of Eskom who made that ill-informed and politically motivated decision, were they aware of the potential risks they were exposing their capital plant to, or conversely, if they were not aware, why didn’t they listen to their staff who would have had the knowledge, instead of reprimanding them? adulthood; helping them and their families on what may be difficult journey.
This latest fund-raiser will be used to assist Tygerberg Hospital with its paediatric surgical backlog. The hospital services a massive catchment area, from the desert in the north to the sea in the south, with some families travelling for days to bring their children for surgery.
The Smile Foundation assists by covering the theatre slate as well as logistical costs in getting the children and their guardians to hospital for operations.
Without this vital support, these children would have to wait for surgery,
Existing research points to thousands of premature deaths a year in South Africa’s coal regions. New Greenpeace research reveals that air pollution from Eskom’s coal-fired power stations also impacts on the people living in Gauteng.
“If these statues were real people, they would be breathing dangerously polluted air. In total, Eskom’s coalfired power plant emissions are responsible for 420 premature deaths a year in Gauteng.
‘‘We need to ensure that Eskom complies with our Minimum Emission Standards to protect people’s health,” said Melita Steele, senior climate and energy campaign manager for Greenpeace Africa.
The fact that Eskom’s coal-fired power stations are largely located within 100km of Gauteng is a particular public-health concern. A Greenpeace analysis of satellite data from June 1 to August 31 last year revealed that South often missing the window for timeous surgical intervention.
“The extra theatre list sponsored by the Smile Foundation plays an integral part in the treatment of cleft lip and palate patients and other children with facial anomalies at Tygerberg Hospital, providing a safe space for the timeous correction and allowing those children to grow up without the stigma associated, giving them a better start in life.” says Alex Zuhlke, Acting Head of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Tygerberg Hospital.
For the fund-raiser, purchase a raffle ticket for R50, giving you the chance to win a 2019 KIA Picanto 1.0 worth R155 000, or a Family of Africa’s coal region, Mpumalanga, was the largest nitrogen dioxide air pollution hot spot across six continents for that three-month period. Eskom is applying for a second set of postponements and/ or suspensions from complying with Minimum Emission Standards. Their submission is due to the National Air Quality Officer on March 31.
“Greenpeace Africa has launched a Clean Air petition, calling on the National Air Quality Officer to ensure that Eskom complies with air-quality legislation. Even one premature death from air pollution is one too many.
‘‘We have to act now to protect our health, and the health of our children, who are even more vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution. Clean air is not a privilege; it is a constitutional right for all South Africans,” ended Steele. Five collection of Glenlivet Whisky, or a Kindle Oasis. “KIA Motors has a long-standing association with the Smile Foundation and it’s a privilege for us to donate a KIA Picanto as the main prize for the raffle,” says David Sieff, Marketing Director, KIA Motors South Africa.
“It is a token of our ongoing support for the incredible work the organisation does, and is but one way in which we believe we can assist in making the joy visible through the smiles of our nation’s children.”
Tickets can be purchased by visiting https://www.smilefoundationsa.org/ donations/raffle/smile-raffle/ FOLLOWING the most recent protest attacks on the Palestinians of the “Great Return” march and a personal request from Palestine for South African assistance, Sharing Hope has embarked on a year-long campaign to raise funds to purchase muchneeded medical supplies for the injured in the Gaza strip.
We have teamed up with Federation of Islamic Medical Associations (Fima) and Islamic Medical Association SA, which are in direct contact with the ministry of health in Palestine, and more particularly Al-Shifa Hospital. We thus have the exact list of medical supplies needed. Among them are prosthetics and other rehabilitation supplies needed to mitigate the effects of explosive bullets which are the cause of many forced amputations.
On March 30 at 7pm at the Palestine Museum, we will be hosting a gala dinner. Our guest speakers include: Muhammad Khalid Sayed, ANCYL Western Cape chairperson, Dr Malik Rageila, founder and manager of the Poor Patients fund and Dr Ashraf Jedaar, treasurer of Fima.
Our guests include: secretarygeneral of the MJC Sheikh Isgaak Taliep, director of Al-Quds Foundation Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels, Amec executive director Naeem Jeenah and Judge Siraj Desai. The keynote speaker is ANC provincial elections head Ebrahim Rasool.
Our theme will be “Giving Hope”.
We hope to reach our target of R1.2 million in order to purchase a containerful of medical supplies. Email hello@sharinghope.org.za