Mandela Day in August – DLS Community Development and Outreach Focus area roll-out

The Community Development and Outreach Focus Group team distributed their soup-in-a-jar meals and cans on the 24th of August. A total number of 407 soup jars and 246 cans were collected and delivered by practically all library staff in the form of donations, soup ingredients, empty bottles, cans, etc.  Due to COVID19 restrictions, and with the safety of staff in mind, our annual Mandela Day project had to be postponed until a later date. We decided on the 24th of August for this outreach initiative and elected to focus on workers in the building sector who were very hard hit by the pandemic.

Suzan Mamabolo and Nolusindiso Skeyi handed out the goods with empathy and patience to men looking for work as painters, tilers, builders, or plumbers at Builders Warehouse in Gezina, Capital Park, and Danville. Lehlohonolo Mokone from the Mamelodi Library handled the logistics and assisted Christine Nel with photography behind the scenes.  A big thank you to Jacob Mothusi who took the time to come to the Library to see how we are doing. Special thanks also to Timothy Mabena and Jeffrey Mashapa for helping us carry the boxes and supplies! Johanna Sikha rendered an invaluable service in washing many of the soup jars and cleaning off the labels and glue to make them reusable.  

Jacob Mothusi and Christine Nel, drivers of this focus area, just want to say a big thank you to this fantastic team effort from all staff members who supported this initiative! It is important to remember that out of each packed bottle with dry soup ingredients, there is enough soup to feed 5 adults. The Library managed to serve 2 035 plates of soup in one day, supplemented by a can of fish, baked beans or bully beef. In contributing to this outreach project, we have acknowledged to each other what really counts – our shared humanity. Thank you, Colleagues!