Children of Fire enjoyed an early Mandela Day breakfast at the Service Station café on 3 July.
The charity organisation helps house and rehabilitate children who have been victims of fires. Co-owners of the Service Station café, Carmen van der Merwe and Louw Kotze, hosted the children who enjoyed the ambience of eating out in their suburb.
Tucking into scrambled eggs on healthy brown toast, the children clinked their glasses of orange juice to toast the memory of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s greatest hero.
Charity founder Bronwen Jones said, “Having met Mandela many years ago, I know that he liked the simplest gestures best. The kindness of giving injured children breakfast in a lovely setting, is just what Madiba would have wanted our neighbours to do.”
The children walk past the Service Station café each week on their nature rambles in the suburb.
They go looking for Jacaranda seed pods, fir cones, oak tree leaves and they study how ivy grips the walls and tree trunks along their way.
Twelve-year-old Polite Gumede, a burns survivor said, “We sometimes play tennis or soccer near the café but it was our first time to eat there.”
With a beaming face he added, “I like eating out.”
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