Mam’uGrace expects good tidings from Cape Town trip
ALEXANDRA – We aim to get the hospice financially self-sustaining within five years of its operation, says Chantel Oppelt.
Alex Hospice and Rehab Centre founder Grace Marutlulle was given a celebratory send off on a fundraising mission to Cape Town for her new home for the terminally ill.
Mam’uGrace, as she is popularly known in the township, left Johannesburg with her entourage to attend a fundraising event on the evening of October 28.
Hospice workers at the old centre on the corner of 3rd Avenue and Joe Nhlanhla Street sang and danced most of the morning.
Addressing an audience at the new premises in the Far East Bank area before departure, Mam’uGrace described the new hospice as a realisation of her lifelong dream for a state-of-the-art centre for her community.
“When I started the hospice way back in 2000 in a scrapyard, I admitted two patients and they both passed on the same day but that did not dampen my spirits and resolve for a state-of-the-art facility as I kept dreaming and hoping, and here I am today,” she said.
Mam’uGrace said she hoped the Cape Town trip would bring back good financial tidings for the hospice which would open its doors in March/April next year.
“Besides being well looked after for posterity, my other wish is for the facility to become financially viable and self-sustaining – hence this fundraising roadshow,” she said.
Her roadshow manager Chantel Oppelt, executive director for the Institute for Applied Alchemy, said the aim was to get the hospice financially self-sustaining within five years of its operation.
The township’s leading philanthropist Linda Twala, who attended the roadshow send off, said he was extremely excited that Mam’uGrace had finally realised her dream of a hospice for her community.
“We will always stand by her as we have done in the journey that she has walked so far to this day,” he said.
The hospice is being built by the City of Johannesburg’s development arm, the Johannesburg Development Agency and its project manager Nombuso Mtsweni said the project was 80% complete and on target toward for completion in March or April next year.
