Happy occasion for the Sweethearts Foundation
FOURWAYS – On the Sweethearts Foundation's seventh birthday, they gave a very special present to a gogo in need of some new wheels.
As the Sweethearts Foundation celebrated its seventh birthday, they gave a gift to someone else!
On 14 February, seven years to the day after the non-profit organisation gave away its first-ever wheelchair to a person in need, a special celebration was held at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways.
This time, the foundation handed over a brand-new wheelchair to Thinvuyo Mahori, a 70-year-old grandmother who needed the device after suffering injuries after being hit by a car in May last year.
The Sweethearts Foundation harnesses the support of corporates, schools and volunteers to provide wheelchairs to those in need through the Tops and Tags initiative, where plastic bottle tops and bread tags donated by the public are recycled in exchange for wheelchairs.
“Today’s a very special day, as it’s the foundation’s seventh birthday and we’re celebrating by handing over a wheelchair,” explained Jessica Gordon of the foundation. “It usually takes about 1 750kg of recycled plastic to buy one standard wheelchair, although depending on the type of wheelchair it can be more expensive.
“Although Thinavuyo [Mahori] already had a wheelchair before today, it didn’t fit her frame right and was very uncomfortable. A big thank you to Worley and Glencore, who donated this chair to us.”
Mahori is a mother of two, grandmother to eight and led an active life (even playing soccer with the other retired women in her community) right up until the accident, after which she spent seven weeks on life support and a total of four months in hospital. Both of her children were present for the handover and were excited about the change it will make in Thinavuyo’s life.
“I feel very happy,” said Irene Mahori, Thinavuyo’s daughter who took over caring for her mother after the accident occurred. “This will make it so much easier to take her out so she can enjoy the things she did before [the accident]. May God bless the Sweethearts Foundation and give them more power to help others who need it.”
The event was held at the Epsom Restaurant inside the Indaba Hotel, which has joined the efforts to collect tags and bottle tops over the past few years.
“This was the perfect venue to get involved in this sort of collection,” explained Crystal Muller, who does marketing for Indaba. “At our conferences, parties and each of the bedrooms there are always bottles of water and, combined with the restaurant, it was very easy for us to start collecting caps for the foundation.
“I’d say that in the average month we will collect between 300kg and 400kg of plastic, although our record amount in one month was when we managed to collect 712kg.”
Fourways residents who would like to get involved in this worthy cause are welcome to donate collected caps and tags at either the gate or reception area of the Indaba Hotel.
For more information about how you can get involved visit www.sweatheartsfoundation.org
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