Rotary Hoedspruit give 67 minutes of their time in service on Mandela Day
The ladies from Rotary Hoedspruit joined with Hlokomela Woman’s Clinic on an outreach to Ga Mametja on Wednesday, July 18 to celebrate Mandela’s 100th birthday.
They all gathered at Hlokomela Centre and took the beautiful scenic drive to Kgwana High School in Ga Mametja in the mini bus packed with Rotary gifts. It’s a lovely modern school building surrounded by ancient beautiful trees and an impressive vegetable garden in the grounds.
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Gift bags with useful personal items were prepared for each of the 400 teenage girls who attended the very interactive lecture in the school playground. The girls who were nicely turned out in their attractive school uniform enjoyed some very serious moments and much laughter in-between. The girls were very attentive and realized the seriousness of what was being shared with them as Kgomotso Khoza spoke about valuable growing up information on female hygiene and cancer prevention with them.
The highlight of the lecture was when Sonja Botha Demonstrated to the teenagers how to examine themselves for breast cancer and then all 400 of them, including Mrs. Mphahlela, hosting the event for us and some of the teachers had a practice run. They also agreed to show their mothers and grandmothers how do to this critical examination. Sonja also explained that they should immediately attend the Hlokomela Women’s Clinic should they find any worrying signs.
It was rather amusing to see all the boys hovering in the background wondering what was going on and why they were not getting any goody bags but they were soon chivvied back to class by their teachers.
Kgwana High School’s motto is ‘Education First’ and Rotary President, Wilna Mew shared with them how important it was for them to master English as it is the world’s business language especially if they want to get good jobs in the area, which is very tourist centric. She also reminded them how difficult it would be for them to work if they became pregnant. Because their mothers are mostly away working on the farms during the week, these girls find themselves in a vulnerable place and Wilna warned them to be vigilant for themselves.
In the meantime back at Hlokomela Centre the Hoedspruit Rotary men had joined up with the team from Raptors View Home Owners Maintenance Department to dig holes and plant a garden of remembrance for Mandela at the Centre as a way of doing their 67 minutes of service.
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By the time the ladies returned from Ga Mametja the job was done and the garden had taken excellent shape and we all returned home feeling it was a very worthwhile morning.
