A tribute to Ma Florrie
After the passing of Ma Florrie in 2015, her legacy still lives on with her loved ones working on a Legacy Project.
Ma Florrie Daniels, a community activist who lived most of her life in Westbury was honoured two months ago for her community activism and her projects which still today is operating in the community of Westbury.
After the passing of Ma Florrie in 2015, her legacy still lives on with her loved ones working in the Legacy Project which was started by Mudney Halim from the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
Currently, an archive is being built at UJ to commemorate the activists’ community projects, relationships with people in the community and with documented memories that Ma Florrie kept.
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On June 24, Ma Florrie would have been 93 years old and the Legacy Project along with loved ones organised an event to celebrate and honour ma Florries’ life by having a special event in Westbury with over five hundred residents attending it.
According to a great-granddaughter, Micaela Daniels, the whole focus of the event was also to hand over a petition for the renaming of the Westbury clinic to Florrie Daniels Clinic, to the MMC of Health and Social Development, in remembrance of Florrie Daniels.
UJ had honoured Ma Florrie in so many awards, in 2015 the university awarded a ‘Certificate of Recognition” for Ma Florrie’s outstanding contribution to the empowerment of women and society.
“She was an elderly woman with a young heart, and there’s nothing that she could not master. She was always eager to learn,” said granddaughter Venesha Sithole.
When asked why they specifically chose for the Westbury Clinic to be renamed after her grandmother, Sithole explained: “She was also part of the committee that started the clinic in Westbury, she was always a volunteer there and that’s why people felt that they should rename the clinic after her.”
Sithole also shared lessons learnt from Ma Florrie; “I understand now what she meant when she said, you give someone bread, they eat now and then they hungry again, when you look at the buildings in the community where she left her footprints you’ll see that they still standing after forty years.”
According to Sithole her grandmother always stressed the fact of teaching people how to do things, not just giving for the moment, teaching people the skill to do something gives them the ability to sustain themselves.
The renaming of the clinic has not been approved as yet but loved ones are hopeful that their Ma Florrie’s name will be on the clinic soon.
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