THE children at Hepburn House, Natal Settlers’ Homes, will soon enjoy their own playground at the home, thanks to a generous donation and help from the Parks Department and organisation, Helping Hands.
Helping Hands’ Aneesa Vawda said the organisation has been involved in an ongoing project at the home and the playground was the next initiative which has been made possible by Willowton Oil.
“Thanks to Willowton, our sponsor for the playground, the children will soon be able to enjoy the playground which has been built for children with special needs. It includes flatbed swings and a round-about for the children. The company also sponsored wheelchairs, six TVs and renovated the bathrooms at the home,” she said.
Aneesa said she approached Jennifer Rampersad from the Parks Department, who was thrilled to get involved in sprucing up the garden.
“We wanted to bring nature to the children as they don’t get much exposure to the outdoors. Being outside just brings the feelings of joy, and we wanted to attract more bees and birds to the garden for children to see, to bring more life to them as such,” she said.
Aneesa said Jennifer was more than happy to get involved and that she was also wonderful with the children at the home.
“She arrived with her working team, and made her workers meet the children to understand why they were getting involved in the project,” she said.
Jennifer said her team from Parks District 7 worked for two days in the garden and did a lot of major pruning, cut back a lot of vegetation and created three new flower beds.
“We planted on troughs and sprayed and removed a lot of invasive alien vegetation. We brought in 500 plants to beautify the space to make it more lively, so the children can smell, see and touch as much as possible.”
“We cleared the vegetation to make it brighter. I am so happy we were able to be involved in a project which has benefited these children,” she said.
Aneesa said Helping Hands had come a long way working with the home.
“We now have physiotherapy bursary students from DUT and UKZN who are working with the children to give back to the community. Our next project will be a physiotherapy room,” she said.
The playground will be officially launched on Saturday, 25 March.
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