Patients give back to the community
Hospital’s staff and patients give something on Mandela Day.
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ON July 18, South Rand Hospital and its rehabilitation patients reached out to members of the public on Mandela Day in keeping Madiba’s legacy.
The rehabilitation ward’s patients and hospital staff came together to participate in the 67 minutes, giving back love to the residents of Jafta Old Age Home, Children’s Home and Lighthouse.
The three organisations were showered with cupcakes which were donated by a Grade Four class from Reddam Waterfall.
The patients only needed to decorate the cupcakes, communicate with the learners via a video call, on how the cakes should look like. After the cakes were prepared, the staff delivered the cakes to relevant individuals.
The patients also passed words of advice to the learners, and sung with them the national anthem, a chorus which lifted the hospital’s walls.
The hospital says one of the patients reported that prior to this event, she had not known about the 67 minutes of giving back, and stated that she was going to implement it into her family in the years to come.
Hospital’s occupational therapist Janice Cowley said they provide patients with emotional support and a sense of achievement.
“Mandela Day provides the staff with an ideal opportunity to create awareness among the rehabilitation patients, and others in the South Rand community, of the impact that Nelson Mandela had on our nation, and use that to shed light on the lives of others. We hope that the patients will continue to give to others, any day or time of the year, a smile, a visit or a gift,” said Cowley.