Donate your bread tags and assist the disabled

DRIVEN by their core purpose to help disabled people become mobile with the use of a wheelchair, Breadtags for Wheelchairs is encouraging residents to support this worthy cause.

Established in Cape Town by Mary Honeybun in 2006, the project involves the collection of bread tags which are sold and the proceeds are used to purchase wheelchairs. It takes 200 bread bags full of tags that are packed into 10 black bags or 200 kgs of tags to raise enough funds to purchase one wheelchair.

After Honeybun retired from a long and successful nursing career she realised she could not retire from her passion to help people. During her nursing career she realised how important it is, both physically and emotionally, for a person disabled by an accident or a medical condition to have the mobility that a wheelchair gives them. This sparked the idea for her to start the project.

Speaking about the success of the initiative, Lorna Norris who works closely with Honeybun, said, “All the money that we are paid for the tags are used to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged folk who need them. To date we have handed out 630 wheelchairs. We now also collect plastic bottle tops from milk, juice and cold drink bottles, but they need to be kept separate as they are taken to a company who provide us with a basic wheelchair in exchange and subsidises the cost of it.”

For those who require a wheelchair, the organisation will need a copy of their ID and a letter from their doctor or therapist detailing their height, weight and the nature of their disability so that the correct type of wheelchair can be supplied to them if possible.