Bags of Love donates blankets to Diepsloot community
FOURWAYS – Life Fourways Hospital initiated a blanket drive in honour of two medical staff who passed away. From the donations, they handed a Dainfern-based NPO the blankets for those in need.
Dainfern-based NPO Bags of Love joined forces with Life Fourways Hospital to help members of the Diepsloot community with a blanket handover.
An initiative started by the hospital in May led to a chain reaction with multiple organisations getting involved and helping keep people a little warmer this winter.
Marketing manager of the hospital, Tanya Jenneker said the blankets they donated were part of a blanket drive initiated by Dr Muhammad Chohan, a physician at the hospital. “We sadly lost two staff members to Covid and it was a very sad experience for us. We wanted to do something to honour them and their contribution to the medical industry and sacrificing their life on the frontline.
“The community all answered the call when we started the blanket drive. We were able to collect 400 blankets in one month as it was run for the whole of May. Looking to the future for drives like this, we plan to build on it,” she said.
Founder of Bags of Love, Susan Harwood said the connection with Bags of Love and the hospital came thanks to a Dainfern resident.
“One of the staff members at the hospital is a Dainfern resident, so she was advised to contact me in regards to what can be done with the collected blankets. Tanya then called us and told us about the blankets. We were meant to have the handover at a later stage but saw that there was a big need for them.”
Harwood concluded, “We were told about a fire that happened in Diepsloot recently, but also that an informal settlement was demolished. We will also be donating these blankets to the SPCA drive in Randburg as some items that have been collected by Bags of Love.”
