Early Christmas for Alex hospice
ALEXANDRA – Patients and staff of the Alex Hospice and Rehabilitation Centre are given an early Christmas.
Unite and Share for Peace and Prosperity (USPP) in partnership with the United Religions Initiative (URI ), hosted an early Christmas for Alex Hospice and Rehabilitation Centre on 29 November.
The organisations prepared a Christmas event for the needy and elderly people in palliative care at the hospice and brought gifts for the patients, staff and nurses.
Female patients were given a handbag which contained a shawl, vaseline, lipstick, body lotion and a necklace. The male patients received caps, lip balm, body lotion and a handkerchief. The staff and the nurses received grocery hampers.
The programme coordinator of USPP, Nazly Mayet said their main drive was to unite people from different backgrounds, as in their organisation they were made up of different religious groups such as Hindu, Christian, Muslim and African spiritual religions.
“What we do is to share our stories and we then come together and talk about what we can we do to bring change to our people. We believe that every little good thing can bring a change to someone’s life,” she added.
Toni Itov, the programme coordinator of URI, emphasised the importance of creating peace in the entire world. “We uphold the values of peace and unity,” said Itov.
“We came here to bring hope and support to these wonderful people. They must know that they are never alone.”
The founder of the hospice, Grace Marutlulle expressed her appreciation for the gifts and said they were really blessed to have an early Christmas. “With the help of Good Samaritans we were able to get something good for the festive season, this means a lot to us. I pray they get blessed and that they never give up on this amazing job that they are doing.”
One of the staff members, Laty Mamabolo said it was really an honour to have an event of this nature. “They [patients] don’t have family members who have enough time to take care of them and spend good times like this one with them, and to also give presents as it has been done today.”
A patient, known only as Tapiwa, said he really enjoyed the day and the party. “I can feel now that the festive mood is here, and we are fortunate to have people coming to share what they have with us.”
Attendees were entertained by the Alex Field Band led by Phumzile Twala.
Details: Grace Marutlulle 073 145 0289; Tony Itov 081 449 5126; Phumzile Twala 083 500 9785.
Read: Abused elderly urged to consider old-age homes
