Zandile Ndhlovu and Anastasia Cohen have run Sithandiwe for many years. The facility looks after more than 30 disabled children and adults everyday.
Ndhlovu and Cohen wake up as early as 4am to do runs in their own cars to collect most of the people they care for from around Alex. They also drive them back home every evening.
They do this to make sure that these children and adults are not neglected during the day and get the care, nutrition and stimulation they need to better manage their conditions.
“It’s an enormous and emotionally taxing commitment for these women, as you can imagine,” said Lindani Mnyandu, Nando’s general manager for marketing communications.
“To make matters worse, for many years they had to care for all the children and adults in two tiny classrooms on a small church ground of the Roman Catholic Church in Alex. Fortunately they have just been given a housing grant and have recently moved to a bigger space in Lombardy East,” he added.
Mnyandu said Nando’s has been #NekNominated [a social media campaign which encourages the public to nominate organisations who need assistance] and is “refusing to play chicken” – after all, the brand is not known for backing down on a challenge: the challenge being to revamp Sithandiwe’s kitchen.
“The kitchen and the action of sitting around a table at mealtimes is truly the life and soul of a family home, and if Nando’s can inject that extra bit of life and soul into this environment it will begin to feel like a real home. As a brand that has family as part of its core values, we are privileged to be able to help this family,” Mnyandu said.
