The incredible giving heart of a township ‘gogo’ philanthropist
Each year an unemployed woman who has nothing ensures that 20 or so children get something so they can enjoy Christmas How you can help
POPPY Mtshwene knows how it feels to have nothing while growing up. She knows how it feels to stand dejected and emptyhanded, seeing the smiles on other children’s faces when they got Christmas gifts, and she did not.
Although unemployed and uneducated, Gogo Poppy, 51 — as she is known in the small township of Emzinoni just outside Bethal, Mpumalanga — saves a portion of her meagre R1 300 grant each month to buy Christmas gifts.
She starts saving from the start of the year to buy the less fortunate children in Extension 7 of Emzinoni toys, clothes and food for Christmas.
“I do this because of the love for the children and it is painful to see the children not wearing clothes in December,” she said. “If you don’t get anything for Christmas, the other children laugh at you and that hurts.”
Gogo Poppy, who lives in a corrugated iron shack with her husband, Manyosi Johan Mkajwa, two children and a grandchild, isn’t able to save a lot of money because her grant and her husband’s salary — he works at a garage — must take care of the family.
So between that and saving money for gifts, she can only help around 20 children over Christmas.
“If I could get help, I will welcome more kids, not turn them away,” she said. “I will not just give them food, I will also give them presents. It’s just that I am able to help 20 kids [at the moment].”
She has been buying gifts for the children in her extension since 2012. Every year more children pitch up at her gate and more leave without a gift. “That’s why I keep sweets. Some will cry and I’ll bribe them with sweets,” she said.
Khabo Khajwa, 12, a Grade 5 pupil at Embekezelo Primary School in Emzinoni, was one of the children who received a Christmas gift from Gogo Poppy last year, and she still visits her every week.
“I was very happy when Gogo gave me the gift,” she said, adding that her parents might not have bought her one. GOGO Poppy would like clothes, toys and food so that she can make more children in her community happy.
You can reach Poppy on You can also call Nhlanhla Ndaba, her neighbour, on
As Gogo Poppy wrapped her arms around her, Khabo admitted she was hoping for another gift this year.
Besides handing out gifts and sweets to the children, Gogo Poppy said her house was open any time to children whose parents were working.
“They come here any time and play. It doesn’t bother me when they are around,” she said.
Before moving to Emzinoni in 1997, when her father died, Gogo Poppy was working as a domestic on a nearby farm where she had been raised.
Her father was a labourer on the farm and when she dropped out of school at the age of 12 after just one year, she soon started domestic work. “I only learnt to write A, E, I, O, U,” she said.
It was there, on that farm, where Gogo Poppy’s mother planted the seed of giving to others. “When I was given something, I would share it with the other kids on the farm. I always felt happy giving to someone else,” she said.
She recalled the first gift she had given to a farm friend: “It was glass tumblers. Glass was scarce, we used tin mugs.”
She has since tried to give whenever she can, and instil the same principles of giving in her own children.
“My heart feels happy because I can help the children whose parents can’t.”
Jabulani Mgema, 31, a teacher at Eminzoni’s Tandanani Primary School, said the community was grateful for Gogo Poppy’s work. “She really helps the community. She’s a leader in our community and like a mother to this community,” he said. “You see the smiles on the children’s faces and you see how grateful they are for their gifts. Not all parents can buy gifts for their children, so Gogo Poppy really helps them out.”
Mgema said people relied on her for more than just Christmas gifts.
“She helps older people who go to her for advice. She’s a true hero,” he said.
’GIVING MAKES ME HAPPY’: Gogo Poppy Mtshwene of Emzinoni township, Bethal, Mpumalanga. She uses some of her grant to buy toys, clothes and gifts for the local children
You see the smiles on the children’s faces and you see how grateful they are. Not all parents can buy gifts, so Gogo Poppy really helps them out