Themba Hospital closes off Mandela Month with nutritional campaign in Clau-Clau.

The medical staff of Themba Hospital was hard at work in July, celebrating Mandela Month. Visiting the Dikgapeng Childcare Centre in Clau-Clau on Friday July 29, was their way of honouring Nelson Mandela’s love for children.

Themba Hospital’s CEO, Thembisile Matsinhe, said the health professionals gave presentations on a variety of topics such as the importance of immunisation, nutritional food, the safe preparation of food, and general health rights.
“The aim of the campaign was to keep to the first love of the icon, which is children. Mandela believed kids are our future leaders and must be nurtured and guided accordingly so that they grow into responsible adults,” Matsinhe said.

The medical staff, alongside Cllr Ezekiel Nkosi of Ward 32, started a vegetable garden at the centre and handed over gardening tools. The hospital management started off Mandela Month with a cleaning campaign, Operation Hlobisa, hosted a career expo for the learners of Sitintile Secondary School in KaNyamazane, and ended off the nutrition campaign at Dikgapeng.

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“We spent our 67 minutes by clearing the clutter at the entrance of our maintenance workshop on Mandela Day. We hosted a fun day to cheer the spirits of children that were admitted in the children’s wards. We played games and shared snacks with them,” Matsinhe said.

“We also hosted a career expo for the Grade 11 and 12 learners from the KaNyamazane school, who expressed their interest in the health science stream. They were exposed to a multidisciplinary team of professionals and taken on a walkabout around the institution. Our key stakeholders, the Department of Health’s bursary section and Mpumalanga College of Nursing, presented their roles and explained how they can help the learners have careers in health.”

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Matsinhe said that they took the advantage of Mandela Month to reintroduce themselves to the community. “We wanted to touch base with our key stakeholders and community partners through these first of many activities. The long-term goal is that we become the hospital of choice, and soon there will be no public servant who does not serve with commitment, or one who lacks passion for their work at the hospital.”