Madiba’s hospital for children coins it
SANDTON – Cianfanelli decided to donate more than R85 000 to a cause he knew Mandela was passionate about, the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital.
Well-known South African artist Marco Cianfanelli, in partnership with the Scoin Shop, donated more than R85 000 to the soon-to-be-opened Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital on 3 May.
Cianfanelli created a coin with the Scoin Shop that depicts one of Cianfanelli’s most famous artworks in South Africa, Release. The atrwork is a large-scale installation in Howick, at the site of Nelson Mandela’s capture, which consists of 50 large steel rods which create an image of Mandela’s face.
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The coin went on sale in 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mandela’s capture and Cianfanelli decided to donate the royalties from the sale of the coin to a cause he knew Mandela was passionate about.
Alan Demby, the managing director of the South African Gold Coin Exchange and the Scoin Shop said when he saw Cianfanelli’s sculpture in Howick he wanted to know if or how it would be possible to have the artwork on a coin. “Thank you for your magnanimity and thank you for your design,” he said to Cianfanelli.
“I wanted to give back and I thought hard about it and I wanted to put it into something that the man himself, Madiba, was involved in and that’s why I decided on the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital,” said Cianfanelli of his decision to donate the royalties to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
The hospital is a result of Mandela’s desire to build a specialist paediatric hospital. Construction for the hospital began in 2014 and will begin receiving its first patients in June.
Vuyo Lutseke, the media and communications officer for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, received the cheque on behalf of the hospital. “For us, this was a complete surprise. We have finished the hospital but we’re busy finishing up certain things like getting certain equipment here and there so it’s very exciting. As a non-profit organisation we really on rely on donors and people who have been kind enough to think of us,” she said.
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