Paddy is a living legend
Paddy Meskin's work in the community was honoured by the eThekwini municipality.
BEREA'S Paddy Meskin received a Living Legends award from the municipality on Friday 5 September in recognition of her service to the community.
Speaking to Berea Mail at a meeting of The Sisterhood of Temple David, of which she has been a member for 50 years, and is a honorary life vice-president, Paddy said it was Wonderful to be recognised and to receive the award.
“It is a great honour, however this award belongs to everyone who was with me on my 50-year journey, which began with my family and with the Sisterhood. The award doesn't belong to me. I dedicate this to my four grandchildren as I want the world to be better for the world's children, this is my passion,” she said.
President of the World Conference on Religions for Peace, South Africa, Paddy was born in England and moved to KwaZulu-Natal in 1948. By the age of 18, she was already active in her temple doing voluntary community work. She has been an active and creative member of the Bet David congregation in Durban for many years.
Assisted by members of the Jewish community in Durban as well as a range of charitable trusts and organisations, Paddy initiated the teaching of more than 4 500 black matric pupils from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. She has also been involved in developing human rights programmes about the Holocaust, Israel and related issues which were run at the Jewish Club for nearly 25 years and which attracted more than 20 000 students. Exhibitions and educational programmes following these themes have been taken to schools throughout KwaZulu-Natal.
Paddy is a board member at the International Centre of Non-violence in Durban and an activist for religious reconciliation, and heads the KwaZulu-Natal Inter-Religious Council’s Secretariat. The Council works with the KZN Premier in redressing social ills such as poverty, unemployment, the spread of HIV/AIDS, homelessness, poor education and access to clean water, as well as the high levels of crime and violence. She has so far played a key role in in setting up eight task forces which will do the actual work of the council.
She received a Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha Award in 2011 for her role in the community in furthering the cause of religious harmony and peace. This award celebrated the values that guide Paddy in her service to the cause of the poor and the deprived. Paddy received the award alongside the Dalai Lama, the international winner of the Mahatma Gandhi Award.
An appeal goes out to the community for women’s nighties and men’s pyjamas for the terminal patients in the hospice at Mavela.
The Sisterhood also desperately need walking shoes for children and women sizes four to eight. Contact Paddy on meskinpd@iafrica.com or 060 527 0461.
