No more mealtime battles at Ratang Bana

The battle for the top table that used to characterise meal times at Ratang Bana will now be a thing of the past.

This is all because of a donation of children’s mealtime tables by a Sandton-based Swiss investment bank, UBS, effectively ending the battle for seats on the main tables at dinner time between the children and the gogos.

The children of Ratang Bana will now have their own top tables when mealtime comes at this Ext 9 charity institution in Alexandra. This because of the generosity of the women of UBS Investment Bank who clubbed together to help other less-fortunate women from communities that are close to the bank’s footprint.

Whatever amount they raised, which they chose not to disclose, the bank topped it up, enabling the women to buy the home items such as a chest freezer, a fridge, a printer and cartridges for their computer, and tables and chairs and toys for the children.

Sibongile Mafola, who described herself as the spokesperson for the group of UBS women, said a bus mate on her trip to work had told her about the work of Ratang Bana and urged her to visit the home one day and see for herself. “I did not take her seriously and she never stopped until I vowed to silence her by making a trip to Alexandra to see the work of Ratang Bana for myself, and I was blown away,” she said.

This will not be the last time that UBS women come to this home. “We hope to service the home from time to time, and for that, they can bank on us,” she added,

Home founder, Ingrid Maredi thanked the women and UBS for their donation, saying it will go a long way – especially, towards ending the competing interests for chairs and tables between the gogos and the children at mealtimes.

“I am so humbled for the amount of items brought by the women, and as an organisation that does not receive any funding from the government, mealtimes sometimes become a challenge and hence we started the food gardens in order to arrest those challenges,” she said.