Pretoria – Children at the Renal Unit at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, in Johannesburg, on Wednesday, were filled with cheerfulness and smiles after a long time.
The toys, books, sweets and toiletries donated by Tourism Deputy Minister Tokozile Xasa and the staff at Hilton Hotel in Sandton, kept the children busy and made some of them forget about their illness for a short while.
The Renal Unit is a dialysis unit catering for haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Most of the children in the Renal Ward have dialyses three times a week, four hours at a time.
The good deed is in keeping with the Mandela Month theme: "Take Action - Inspire Change - Make Every Day a Mandela Day”.
This theme encourages all to take responsibility to change attitudes and to ensure a peaceful co-existence in communities.
Handing over the donations, Deputy Minister Xasa accompanied by the Hilton Hotel staff thanked the nurses taking care of the sick children for the good work they were doing.
She said the country provides the best health care services. “We have a lot that we can tell that is happening in this hospital,” she said.
Deputy Minister Xasa thanked the Hilton Group for their contributions to the children.
Receiving the donations on behalf of the other patients (children), Thapele Madume, 16, also a patient at the Renal Ward, could not hide his excitement and was speechless.
He thanked them for the donations on behalf of the children at the ward.
Thapele, who started his dialysis four years ago, thanked the Deputy Minister and the staff at the Hilton for donations.
Charlotte Maxeke Hospital Chief Executive Officer Gladys Bogoshi said the nurses in the ward are very close to the children. “Whatever happens to the patients (children) they feel for them,” she said.
According to Bogoshi, the patients that are being taken care of at the Renal Ward range from two to 26-years of age.
She explained that they are outpatients who only come three times a week for their sessions.
Speaking to SAnews, Cluster HR Manager from the Hilton Hotel in Sandton, Peter Thomas, said the donation is part of the Mandela Day celebration.
“This is part of strengthening community relations. We would like to create more sustainable relations with the hospital,” he said, adding that they normally do different activities on Mandela Day.
Every year on 18 July, South Africans and the international community honour the former President and international icon, the late Nelson Mandela, through voluntary community work.
This is an annual international day of humanitarian action in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy. – SAnews.gov.za
