I love charity work and when I see people united to help those who are less unfortunate, it warms my heart.
July month has, over the past few years, been marked as a charity month to honour the legacy of the late state president, Nelson Mandela and to celebrate his birthday.
In the days leading up to the charitable events invitations, from different organisations requesting coverage, started flooding in.
These are the people who want to be counted amongst those who give to those in need.
One of the invites that stood out for me was that of young children from an early development centre in Tsakane, who wanted to share funds, clothes and food parcels with the children at Tsakane Therapy Centre.
The young children went on to spend the rest of the day with their physically challenged peers through an initiative promoting interactive inclusion.
The two groups shared different skills, songs and dance moves they had learnt in their respective centres.
Though some of children from both groups could barely speak, they managed to communicate with each other some how.
This made my heart melt.
Many adults would cover their faces in shame after seeing such beautiful interaction.
There was no sign of one child being treated differently because of his or her physical challenge.
In our communities we still have people who look down on the physically challenged, families that lock them behind closed doors and those who still associate them with witchcraft.
I hereby salute the teachers at the centre for encouraging and teaching the children the importance of charity – at a very young age.
These young children are the future of this country. It is important for them to know there are people who are born different to them and that they should not be treated differently.
After all, we are all human, regardless of the physical disabilities we have.
