SABC
NEWS VOLUNTEERS FOR THE ELDERLY IN THE RUN-UP TO AND AFTER NELSON MANDELA
INTERNATIONAL DAY, WEDNESDAY 18 JULY 2012, IN HONOUR OF HIS LONG
LIFE:
FRIDAY, 13 JULY 2012
PRETORIA: Pretoria Care for the Aged:
Shop 2&3, Finpark Building, 222 Schoeman Street
Contact: Director Carien van Huyssteen / Secretary
Cecile Hasses
W: 012-320-3577 / 3929
Pretoria Care
for the Aged
strive to advance the quality of life of older and vulnerable people, including
social work and homecare services for the frail and
those living with HIV/Aids. They have multi-purpose service centres in the
city’s disadvantaged communities.
These centres provide daily meals, social
activities, community services, healthcare, distribute food parcels,
transportation, literacy classes, skills and job creation projects. Their main challenge is the collection of
non-perishable food (rice, sugar, coffee, tea, milk
powder, mielie meal, two-minute noodles, instant soup, baked beans, mixed
vegetables, pilchards, soya mince, peanut butter, Provitas, oil, Bovril, pasta,
oats, muesli, eggs etc). The Pretoria news
and Ikwekwezi current affairs teams will try to collect as much non-perishable
food as possible before the time. They will also spend time with this
organisation, doing whatever they can to help.
BLOEMFONTEIN: Boikhuco Old Age Centre:
1048 Maleleka Street, Bochabelo
Contact: Mansger Christine Mosala
W: 051-432-4394
/ 2471
C: 082-495-0584
This community-run centre was
established in the 1950s. The
municipality later closed it down for financial reasons. In 1982, concerned residents established the
Mangaung Society for the Care of the Aged and took over the centre’s
infrastructure – a derelict old-age home and 12 housing units. The centre now has 80 residents; 30 elderly
people who use its day-care centre during the week; and 345 old and young
people who receive home-based care, including those with HIV/Aids at Thaba
Nchu. The centre also has nine community
lunch clubs for 350 people. Students
from the University of the Free State provide rehabilitation and support services
to the centre. They also gain hands-on
experience in nursing, psychiatry, geriatrics, medical and home-based care at
the centre. The centre’s Board comprises
10 volunteers. Its finances are audited
annually by Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants. This centre needs to fund raise because the
Social Development Department only funds 55 per cent of its programmes and
services. The centre also needs building
maintenance (painting, repairs, new and secure fencing); smoke-and-fire
detectors; an industrial washing machine and tumble dryer; emergency trolley
with drawers and stretchers etc. The Bloemfontein news and current affairs teams,
including Lesedi FM, will volunteer on Friday 13 July to spend some quality
time with the permanent and day-care elderly, talking, listening and reading to
them, as well as cleaning, cooking and washing for them.
SATURDAY, 14 JULY 2012:
DURBAN: The Highway
Hospice Association:
59 Locksley Drive, Sherwood
W: 031-208-6110
/ 825-2582
C: 083-278-2561
The 30-year-old
Highway Hospice is a Non-Profit Organisation that cares for people with
advanced incurable diseases and life-threatening illnesses, including HIV, in
the eThekweni Municipal area. It
believes that everyone with a terminal illness deserves a quality and meaningful
life and that they have the right to a dignified death. The hospice provides free services to all
South Africans. It also provides
home-based care to patients at Inanda, Phoenix, Umlazi, Chesterville and Durban
central. It visits grannies looking
after orphans; offers solace to patients who don’t get touched much anymore;
and offers free alternative healing such as reiki, aromatherapy and pet therapy
with cats, birds and fish. It also
teaches Westville prisoners how to care for fellow inmates. Older prisoners are taught childcare for the
prison crèche etc. The hospice needs
wound dressings, toiletries, lotions, tissues, groceries, food parcels, Jojo
rainwater tanks, paint, as well as worm and herb gardens. The Indanda home-based care centre needs soil
for a food garden; leveling of the ground and help planting. Our Durban-based news and current affairs
teams will volunteer at the hospice by focusing on the elderly who are terminally ill or have
chronic diseases. They will provide
voluntary assistance, answer phones; read to patients, wheel patients around in
the garden; participate in home-base care visits; clean up the site; collect
clothes, pack food parcels and garden. The Ukhozi FM and Lotus FM current
affairs teams plan to broadcast from this hospice on Nelson Mandela
International Day (18-07-12), while also reflecting what’s happening locally,
nationally and internationally.
MAHIKENG: Lapa-La-Botlhe Aged Care
Centre:
30 Baden
Powell, Signal
Hill, Mahikeng
Contact Boikanyo Leeto
C: 079-297-9172
There are about 70 residents at this centre. It’s currently struggling because it hasn’t
received a government subsidy for the past four months. Construction of its incomplete extension
building has been halted due to financial challenges. Our Mahikeng news and current affairs team will
try to (1) collect and/or partner with a local wholesale company for
non-perishable food, groceries, detergents and toiletries for the elderly; (2) partner
with a reputable local building construction company, the North-West Public
Works Department and/or the Mafikeng Prison (for prison labour) to finish the
extension building; (3) clean the entire premises, including house and
dishes.
JOHANNESBURG: Itlhokomeleng
Association for Aged and Disabled Persons:
141 8th
Ave, Alexandra
Contact Founding CEO Marjorie Manganye
(aka “The Mother Theresa of Alex”) OR assistant Charlotte (011-443-7446)
W: 011-443-3705
/ (After hours 011-443-4828)
C: 082-894-6942
A group of
concerned women in the 100-year-old northern Johannesburg suburb/township of Alexandra
started this association in 1978.
It looks after 90 needy, destitute, homeless, abandoned and neglected
elderly, sick, frail, disabled and wheelchair-bound people. It was registered as a welfare organization
in 1984. Four years later, the Sandton
Rotary Club and Anglo-American jointly bought some land and erected temporary
housing for the residents. The temporary
home was replaced with a permanent one, including a frail-care unit, in
1991. Most of its residents include/d
some of the first Africans to own land in Alex.
The late Hector Pieterson’s father, Victor, died here in
2002. The SABC’s
English public radio station, SAfm, supported this association last year as
part of its Mandela Day contribution. President
Jacob Zuma visited the association at the end of May this year as part of
Alexandra’s centenary celebrations. The
association also provides home-based care and education. It tries to feed about 300 undernourished and
neglected old and disabled people at least one balanced meal on Tuesdays. The home employs 54 staff members, who work in shifts. SABC News and current affairs staff can donate non-perishable food [tinned
food and fruit; long-life milk, fruit juice and custard; coffee; tagless tea
bags; sugar; Ace mealie meal; Weetbix; corn flakes; oats; brown or pink
lentils; tuna; sardines; pilchards in tomato sauce; peanut butter; fish paste;
cheese spread; jam; sweet or savoury biscuits; packets of soup powder; rice;
chutney; tomato sauce; Worcester sauce etc]; bed linen [blankets, sheets, pillows, pillowslips, duvets, covers
and cushions etc]; toiletries [face
cloth; soap; tooth brush/paste; pocket-size tissues; roll-on deodorant; body
lotion; Minora blades & men’s shaving cream etc]; reading material [old and/or new books and magazines]; clothes [male and female; winter and
summer]; and arts and crafts for
sale etc. Volunteers can socialise
with the residents; play games with
them (cards, backgammon, bingo); read
to them; massage their hands and
feet with lotion etc.
MAP: click here
JOHANNESBURG: Frederic Place Home for the
Aged: [09:00-16:00]
28 Riversdale Street, Coronationville
Director Ronelle Sartor (082-653-7449 / fpdirector@telkomsa.net) /
Operations Manager Deborah Ho-Chung / Receptionist Cynthia
W: 011-673-3204
Frederic Place, near the Rahima Moosa
Mother and Child Hospital, is an independent non-profit organisation for 85
mainly abandoned, neglected, disabled and frail senior citizens with limited or
no financial means. The Catholic welfare
organization, Saint Vincent de Paul Society, founded the home in 1978. Many of the residents have some form of
dementia (loss of brain function, including Alzheimer’s); physical handicaps
due to strokes; or other chronic diseases that require 24-hour care. The home survives on the residents’ old-age
pensions and government disability grants.
But it has an monthly shortfall of about 200-thousand Rand, for which it
must fundraise. The home employs 67
staff members, who work in shifts. Morning
tea is at 10:00, lunch is between 12:30 and 13:30, and afternoon tea is at
14:30. SABC News and current affairs
staff can donate toiletries [face cloth; soap; tooth
brush/paste; pocket-size tissues; roll-on deodorant; body lotion; Minora blades
& men’s shaving cream etc]; non-perishable
food [tinned food and fruit; long-life milk, fruit juice and custard; coffee;
tagless tea bags; sugar; Ace mealie meal; Weetbix; corn flakes; oats; brown or
pink lentils; tuna; sardines; pilchards in tomato sauce; peanut butter; fish
paste; cheese spread; jam; sweet or savoury biscuits; packets of soup powder;
rice; chutney; tomato sauce; Worcester sauce etc]; reading material [old and/or new books and magazines]; wall hangings [artworks, painting, pictures
etc]; clothes [male and female;
winter and summer], bed linen [sheets,
pillows, pillowslips, blankets, duvets, covers and cushions etc]; and crockery. Volunteers
can socialise with the residents; play games with them (cards,
backgammon, bingo); read to them; massage their hands and feet with
lotion etc. SABC News Management/Corporate can host the 14:30-15:30 tea (black/red
tea, coffee, sugar, long-life milk, sweet and savoury biscuits etc). It can order and deliver a special chocolate
and vanilla cake with 94 candles/sparklers (in honour of Mandela) for about 140
people, including the home’s staff members, as well as savoury finger
food/snacks for about 20 diabetics.
MAP:
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SUNDAY 15 JULY:
KIMBERLEY: Galeshewe
Old Age Day Care Centre:
5340 Moraladi Street, Mankurwane,
Kimberley
Contact Mr Gaopalangwe
W: 053-807-7600
C: 083-963-5719
The Sol Plaatjie Municipality
established this self-catering centre in 1962.
The municipality’s housing division manages the centre. It accommodates 58 elderly people – 29 female
and 29 male! Each of them have own
living unit/area, including bedroom, kitchenette and small garden. A mobile clinic visits the centre one
Wednesday a month. The elderly at this
centre need balanced meals; blankets; winter clothes (including nightwear and
slippers); walking sticks; wheelchairs; TVs; and an common entertainment area. Our Kimberley news team and community radio
station, XKfm, will try to collect and/or partner with a local retailer/wholesaler
(such as Samy’s/Semi’s; Nu Main Distributors etc) for non-perishable food,
groceries, detergents and toiletries for this centre. They’ll also try to collect and/or partner
with Sesli/Tridex/Aranda for blankets.
Our colleague, cameraperson Gaokungwe Modutwane has volunteered to
prepare food for about 80 people on Sunday 15 July, while Sebolelo Ditlhakanyane has committed to
helping financially.
POLOKWANE: Regaogetswe
Day Care Centre:
Seshego Zone 5
Contact Mmamolepo Mmachaka
C: 072-872-8966
In 2009, a group of 13 women came
together to take care of the elderly in the Seshego area. They currently look after 65 pensioners, mostly
by means home visits. Most of the
elderly are sick. The women cook for
them; remind them to take medication; and also bring them disposable nappies
and, where possible, wheelchairs. The
women operate from a mobile container in an open space. This NGO depends on donors. Its care-givers don’t get a government stipend
or food parcels. Their main needs are
non-perishable food and blanket donations.
Our Polokwane news and three current affairs teams will try to collect
non-perishable food, disposable adult nappies and blankets for this centre
before the time. Their volunteering
efforts will include cooking; entertaining; reading, singing, playing indoor
games; massaging and pampering the elderly, as well as helping them with their exercises. Coordinator=Shibu
Mamokgere
CAPE
TOWN: Mzamomhle
Educare (For children, not the elderly)
This facility looks after
150 children in the relatively new township of Mfuleni, about 40 kilometres
from Cape Town, and the surrounding area.
Our Cape Town-based radio station, Good Hope FM, has been running a
“Keep Cape Town Warm” campaign, in which blankets have been collected. Some of these blankets, food and toiletry
gift bags will be donated to Mzamomhle Educare.
Our Cape Town based news team – Sea Point and Parliament – will join
Good Hope FM and Community Chest, which tries to restore hope and enhance
communities, to help feed Mzamomhle’s children
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MONDAY 16 JULY 2012:
NELSPRUIT: Slindokuhle
Old Age Service Centre:
Stand No 974, Zwelisha Trust
Contact: Lindiwe Mathebula
W: 013-752-7583
C: 083-403-9707
The centre for elderly women from
Zwelisha was established in 2006. It’s a
non-profit organisation that provides them with the space and opportunity to do
something with their lives, time and talents.
The produce mainly sculptures and beadwork for sale. Their needs include proper furniture and a
computer. Our Nelspruit news and current
affairs team will collect non-perishable food to donate parcels to them. They will spend some quality time with the
elderly women, also cleaning and cooking for them.
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MONDAY 23 JULY 2012:
PORT
ELIZABETH: Gelvan Park Frail and Aged Home:
Olea Street, Springdale,
Port Elizabeth
Contact Sister Linda
Swartz
W: 041-452-2111/ 452-4252 / 456-2779 /
086-660-1869
This home looks after 90
marginalised, abandoned and neglected elderly people. They’re in need of social interaction, new or
second-hand warm clothing and blankets.
Our Port Elizabeth news and current affairs team will try to fulfil all
these needs by collecting donations beforehand and then spending at least an
hour at the home. It hopes to give each
of the elderly residents their own blanket!
By 4 July, our team had secured 100 blankets to donate to this home
Tuesday 10 July 2012 14:15
