Empowering communities with knowledge in celebration of World Lupus Day
Phume Mbanjwa founded the ElihleSamu Foundation to help raise awareness about Lupus.
TODAY is World Lupus Day and Caxton Local Media spoke with the founder of newly launched ElihleSamu Foundation based in Waterfall, Phume Mbanjwa.
Through a personal experience of treating her mother who was diagnosed with Lupus, Mbanjwa founded the ElihleSamu Foundation with the aim to raise awareness. The organisation was founded in November 2022 when Mbanjwa collaborated with two other ladies, Nokwazi Moffat and Sthabile Mtolo.
The registered NPO is based in Hillcrest and was launched in April this year. Mbanjwa said they formed it after she and her family battled to find support for their mother as they had limited knowledge about Lupus.
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“I then had a vision of trying to help other people out there with some support or by offering some type of assistance. Our foundation was born with the purpose of providing awareness about the disease of Lupus and being a support group for Lupus-affected families and communities, especially in the lower-income communities.
“Our mission is to educate, support and assist those affected. We want to create awareness by organising events to address Lupus and the signs and symptoms and also create a network of social services that families and communities can access for support,” said Mbanjwa.
During the launch of the foundation, Mbanjwa said they had doctors who taught about Lupus.
“Lupus SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), or just Lupus, is an autoimmune disease. Normally a person’s body will defend itself against harm by attacking germs, cancer cells and other invaders using the immune system – the body’s defence system. With Lupus, the immune system ‘misfires’ and can begin to attach to itself, harming the healthy cells of your kidneys, heart, lungs, brain, skin, etc. This is called autoimmunity.
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“Lupus is unique for each individual, so people will identify with different signs and symptoms, such as severe headaches, extreme fatigue, fever, swollen feet, hands, legs and abnormal blood clotting, skin colour changes, etc.
“Research shows that anyone can get lupus, however, it is most commonly found in women of African descent, Asian descent and between the ages of 15–45 ages. However, you can still get it earlier or later in life. Lupus is not curable but is manageable. Therefore treatment and therapy are very important. They will assist in suppressing the overactive immune system so to avoid hurting more of your organs,” she said.
The foundation has planned community outreach programmes/activations for the coming month for Lupus Awareness Month. This includes travelling to the lower South Coast in the rural communities to raise awareness and provide support to churches. They have also started working with other organisations where they said they will be doing school visits.
Mbanjwa said the organisation would be grateful for any kind of support they can get from the public.
“Currently, the foundation is financed by myself as the founder, and I would like to ask for any kind of support or donations when we go out there to the underprivileged communities – we plan on giving out food packs, refreshments, etc. Any donations would be most appreciated,” she said.
The foundation can be supported through the following channels: email at elihlesfoundation@gmail.com or call 078 574 0533 or follow @elihlesamu_foundation_ on Instagram.
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