Orphans celebrate Mandela day with mixed feelings.



Orphans at Good Hope Community Organisation recieve gifts from donors



Orphans at the Good Hope Community Organisation at the Mhlaumbe section of Winterveld Phase 4, celebrated Mandela Day with mixed feelings. They were happy to celebrate Tata`s birthday but saddened by the news that he remains in a critical but stable condition.  



The Good Hope Community Theatre opened the event with a splendid performance.  Children from various schools came in numbers to support and celebrate Mandela Day with their friends and classmates.

The director of the theatre Oscer Baloyi, was happy to perform at the event as the day was dedicated to Madiba.

“I feel so special to come and celebrate Mandela Day here by performing with my group. We dedicate this day to Madiba, as a hero, a legend and we wish him a speedy recovery,” he said.

According to Baloyi the vision of the group is to encourage the youth in the communities to do art.

“Our vision is to develop these young people in the community to work on art and also to see our group going to different places. I want to keep them way from dangerous things like drugs, rape and also peer pressure,” he said.

The Democratic alliance (DA) spent their 67 minutes at the orphanage showing support and helping the organisation.

“The reason we came to this orphanage is because we want to commemorate Mandela day with these children. We also need to know what should be done to assist the children of this orphanage and what role can the community play in terms of supporting those who are in need,” said DA Gauteng North PR Councillor Alfred Ncube.

He also said that people should continue giving because life doesn’t end on Mandela Day.

The owner of Pick n Pay in Soshanguve, George Senosha donated a cake and said he wanted to celebrate Mandela Day with the children.

 “What inspired me to bring the cake here is that I want to celebrate Mandela day with the children. We have been praying with the children and ask God to protect Mandela so he can see his 95th birthday and we are over the moon because now he has seen his 95th birthday.

Deputy Director General of Corporate Management, Thandeka Mxenge was pleased with the Department for Women and People with Disabilities for being able to spend its 67 minutes of its time giving gifts to the orphans.



“We are happy that we are able to remember what Tata Nelson Mandela means to us. We are aiming at raising awareness in our communities so that they know the importance of our children, loving our children and raising them well because they are the future of our nation. Nelson Mandela reminded us that a society can only be judged by the way it treats its own children. By this initiative we would like to remind people that this is not only for children but also for elderly people,” she said.

She exhorted the community to make every day a Mandela Day by going to orphanages and houses of elderly people and clean for them.

The founder and director of Good Hope Community organisation Mery Lwato was ecstatic with the number of people who came to her orphanage to celebrate the Nelson Mandela International Day with her.

“I’m very excited because I never thought people would come in large numbers to spend their 67 minutes with us. It is clear that people consider this day as one of the most significant days in their lives and in South Africa,” she said.

Pupils from Thulaganyo secondary school and Tswaing secondary school were very content to celebrate Mandela Day with people from different places at the orphanage.