A reminder once again that it's Mandela Day next Friday, the eighteenth of July, and we're continuing with our interviews, just highlighting projects that you might want to consider if you are still looking for a way to offer your sixty seven minutes of service. Today we focus on an initiative to raise awareness and funds to help change the
lives of the elderly living in township environments. We've spoken before to both Ikamva Labantu and to Relate Bracelets and they've joined forces to organize an event where participants will join a group of Gorgo's to breed bead bracelets and at the same time have an opportunity to share their stories, to share their memories of Nelson Mandela and to have a different kind of experience of one another. With me on the line is Ikumba's head of Programs, Barbara Stemmett.
It's wonderful to have you with us again. Barbara, Welcome, Hi Papa.
Thank you so much for having me on your show.
It's a pleasure. You're using Mandela Day to really try and highlight the struggles that elders go through and that are often overlooked. Barbara, maybe let's start there just give us a brief reminder of some of the major challenges.
So with our older people, they experience so much abuse within the communities, which is this arrange from physical, emotional, sexual, financial abuse. And at the cumber Labuntu we offer them services through a club based model and through frail Home the home based care. At our club based model, we have them coming in five days a week where we transport them to and from the club. We provide them with nutritious meals. We also give them a range of
activities and access to health care and psychosocial support. So in saying that, we also conducted a bit of research last year around older abuse and that highlighted a range of abuse. And this Mandeli Day initiative has a two fold approach. It is to create awareness raise awareness around the challenges older people experience, especially within the home environment. Financial abuse is a huge challenge for them. Many of them have to take care of their children their grandkids
due to the high unemployment rates. And then also many of our older people actually now have parental roles and responsibilities where their children have left their kids in their care. So besides creating awareness of the difficulties that older people are experiencing. We also want to use this event to raise further funding so that we can support and service the older people.
Okay, so absolutely essential work with our question Barbara, tell us more about the events and how people can get involved.
So on the eighteenth of July, we have various corporates that have book time slots for sixty seven minutes to come indeed with our goggles and do the course bracelets, they can have chats with them. Unfortunately that event has been fully booked, but you can still assist that if you have not pledged your sixty seven minutes for Mandela Day through either donating non cherishable items and it can
be delivered to our woodstock offers. To get to arrange a drop of time and to get the address, you can contact two one four six one eight double three eight and then we can arrange a time with you. And if you can't do that and you're more interested in actually donating you're giving us a cash donation, you can go to our website which is www dot ECAMVA, which is I K A M for Mary, B for bars, A for Apple, dot org, dot ZEDA, and then you can do a financial contribution there and I just.
Want to mention that my colleague Tracy Langa from KFM is going to be broadcasting live from the event next Friday, and she has personally put out a plea to please consider bringing along some gently worn beanies or new ones of course always welcome, as well as blankets and scarves such a cold, wet winter. Barbara, I would imagine that the need for those is bigger than.
Ever, one hundred percent. We would really appreciate that, especially with older people living within the shack community, their places are flooded with the range and it's extremely cold. We'd really appreciate that.
Okay, So, Barbara, cash donations welcome, donations of non perishable items to be dropped off at the Woodstock head office, or if you're able to, please consider supporting traces appeal for those warm winter woollies to make a difference. Barbara, this is a day where we ask particularly for people to help. But let's just finish by talking about ways of being a longer term helper and supporting this work, because from what you've said, the scale of the problem
is huge. That means the need expands well beyond Mandela Day itself. How do cape talk listeners support this work on a longer term, so you.
Could go to our website and like I said, make a financial donation because we serve older people, but we also work within the field of early child development. We work with childish and parenting as well, so there might be another area that you're interested in for your long term support. You could also arrange you would like to come out and do some scie visits with us. We can actually show you the work that we're doing and then that take it from then you can decide really
something that you want to align yourself with. This is a particular area.
Barbara Stemmett, thank you so much for your time this afternoon, and we hope that you have a very very fruitful Mandela Day event with lots and lots of support from the public as well as those corporates who've already pledged their space. How wonderful to hear that the event is already fully booked. That's fantastic. If you'd like to know more about their work, that website again is Kumva dot org dot Seda spelled ika Mva Kumva dot org dot zeda. There is a click through to their Undela Day page
when you land on that landing site. The number to dial if you'd like to organize a dropoff of donations of non perishable goods or of some winter woollies. Two one four six one eight double three eight. That's two one four six one eight double three eight. If you're in the car and couldn't drop down those details, If you're welcome to send me an email when you're next at your computer, pipa h at Cape talk dot co dotz A, and I'll gladly pass on those details.