Inspiring aid for children in need
NELSON Mandela’s love for children has inspired a Vodacom Change the World volunteer to spend Mandela Day this week reading and playing with a group from a poor community.
Robyn Brown has already been doing her bit for charity as one of 20 volunteers in the initiative, in association with Times Media Group, that allows professionals to work with a charity of their choice for a year and be paid for it.
Brown, an outreach programme facilitator at Bright Start, will be reading storybooks and enjoying games with the children at the Wavecrest Educare Centre, which caters for 105 children from an informal settlement near Hout Bay.
Her chosen charity, Bright Start, offers educational support to children from disadvantaged homes. It will help her with a campaign to encourage Cape Town people to donate books and toys for Wavecrest.
Another volunteer, Norma Young, communication officer for LEAP Science and Maths Schools, said a quiz show called “Are you smarter than a LEAP grader” would pit five of their pupils against adult members of various corporations.
Other volunteers who are going all out to do their bit for Mandela Day include:
Caitlin Longman has organised massages for elderly residents of Park Care Centre in Johannesburg;
Michael Stevens, from Jumping Kids Prosthetic Fund, in association with Avis, will donate chalkboards to rural schools around the country;
Kliptown Youth Programme’s Stephanie Venter will organise eye tests for 300 pupils, because poor eyesight might affect their ability to do their homework and study;
A five-ton food collection container has been placed at Benmore Gardens shopping centre in northern Johannesburg by the Afrika Tikkun organisation, whose volunteer, Naazneen Tarmohamed, will distribute food to needy people; and,
Alta Brown Steenkamp, who works for the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, is organising bikers from Gauteng and Limpopo to build a wendy house, playground, vegetable garden and fence for a Limpopo orphanage.
“Mandela once said education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world,” Brown said. “So I’m happy to be fulfilling the spirit and purpose of Mandela Day.”