UJ volunteers clean up Helen Joseph Hospital

With this year’s theme for Mandela Day being ‘Its in your hands’ University of Johannesburg made sure to do just that, by stepping up in order to make a difference.

A large group of volunteers from the university, which consisted of both staff and students, spent a good measure of their day cleaning at Helen Joseph Hospital.

Manager for corporate and postgraduate projects and internationalisation at the institution, Dr Ronél Toerien, said this was just one of the projects they decided to do for the day. Doing their part in aid of the hospital was important as not only are they neighbours, but more importantly, the hospital as been the university’s training hospital for years.

Volunteers were sectioned off to different parts of the hospital. Some worked on the garden and others picked up litter. Those inside the hospital cleaned elevators, the dining hall, glass doors, emptied dustbins and a whole lot more.

Toerien said a day like Mandela Day is special as every year it allows for people across the country to come together. Along with that it helps us realise that we are not too important to be part of something like this – that helps put smiles on people’s faces. “This is our little contribution on Mandela Day – to come and clean up and help where there may be a shortage of hands.”

UJ staff member Marievonne Daya, who was also part of the volunteers, hoped that from the day students took with them the importance of accountability and responsibility within our communities. “It’s a social impact we need to make and it starts with us as individuals coming together to make a difference.”

For Toerien it was important for students to see her also get her ‘hands dirty’ as it showed how no matter your rank or title, we are all still human at the end of the day and the importance of just coming together, especially in South Africa.

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