A selfless act rewarded greatly
"I grew up as a naughty young girl and I did not have respect for anyone. I was very harsh towards people, never stopping to consider how my words might affect them."
An act of pure selflessness has seen 52-yearold Constance Mpuru being awarded with a Silver Star for Bravery and a certificate.
She got awarded for having saved children at Mafarani Primary School from a fatal incident.
“We had a troop at the school and there were these kids that were running and screaming. When we turned, I noticed that they were being attacked by bees. One of the kids got stung on his face so badly that he lost consciousness and I quickly ran to him to try and get him to safety. What I did not realise after picking him from the ground was that the bees were now on me. The only thing I had in my mind was to get the little child to safety and I managed to get him to a bed of flowers and the bees then stopped stinging him. I ran around the school for a while until I came across an open hall and I closed myself in there but some of the bees had gotten in with me,” she explained.
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It was through the help of her colleagues at Keep The Dream196 that drove the car around to where she was hiding and managed to get her to a nearby clinic, along with the children who had been stung.
The little boy who had fallen unconscious was in ICU for one week wherein afterwards he was kept another week for recovery.
Constance told Letaba Herald that ‘the old Constance would have never done anything for anyone else’ and thus having been awarded the medal last Thursday, made her realise just how much of an impact the organisation has had on her life.
Mpuru who is from Sedan village in Mohlaba stated that joining ‘Keep The Dream196’, which is an organisation that sets out to change people’s lives, young and old alike, has changed her life for the better.
“I grew up as a naughty young girl and I did not have respect for anyone. I was very harsh towards people, never stopping to consider how my words might affect them and as a result I became very short tempered with everyone and everything,” Constance stated.
She joined Keep The Dream196, in 2011 and she exclaimed that it wasn’t an easy transition for her but it is something she is now grateful for.
“It was difficult for me to envision the change and I thought I would be losing myself so I became resistant towards it. 52-year-old, Constance Mpuru in her scouts uniform showing the medals she has received since being part of Keep The Dream. But thanks to the advise that Louise Batty gave me and the support from everyone here, I overcame my own fears. Louise came to me one day and asked me to go to counseling so that I could deal with all my anger, and that was the biggest thing that I did which made me feel lighter. I am proud of where I am right now. I have been able to take part in skills development training, lessons in English and I even learned to work better with the people around me,” she exclaimed.
As a mother of three and a grandmother to three boys, she spoke of how the organisation helped her better the relationship she has with her family. According to Constance, she wasn’t an approachable person to her family but through the counseling she got, she was able to make amends and rebuild her relationship with her children.
She has also traveled the province with Keep the Dream to help and train long-term unemployed people in permaculture and they created community based garden projects to enhance employment.
“Having been part of this journey made me come to terms with the fact that everyone has a purpose and there is a time to fulfill ones calling. I would have never thought at the time I first joined that I could still live out my dreams. Therefore, people shouldn’t strain themselves thinking that nothing will ever change because there is no expiration date on dreams,” she concluded.
