To celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday on Saturday, a tree planting mission was organised by Debbie Joubert at Ithemba Labasha children’s centre in Shaka’s Head.
A huge cohort of community members arrived at the centre with donations of different trees, shrubs, food, drinks and a healthy amount of muscle to spruce up the children’s play area with some extra greenery.
Jane Strode of Claremont Farm donated a toad tree and a Natal mahogany tree to the centre, while Karibu Nursery’s Rozanne Munusamy and Able James gave the centre two leopard trees, a milkwood tree, an umdoni tree as well as an array of other trees and shrubs to add to their growing garden.
A big team of about 30 men, women and children, some of them locals and others invited volunteers – got stuck in and quickly removed the old fencing, got all eleven trees and the many shrubs planted, picked up broken glass and rubbish scattered around the grounds and cleaned up the whole play area for the children to use safely and freely.
Attending the day was ward four councillor Jethro Banda, who arrived to do his bit for the children after being invited to attend and join the ranks of the many community members ready to wield their spades and ladles for the centre.
Lisa Govender and her energetic team from Food for Life also attended the day and arrived with enough biryani and juice to feed the hungry crowd of 150 children, staff, guests and volunteers present on the day.
“A massive thanks goes out to everyone who made the day possible and to all those who gave up their time to help out the centre – a wonderful time was had by all and the play area looks beautiful,” said Joubert, who expressed her gratitude at the community’s invaluable contribution to the centre.
The children of Ithemba Labasha thanked the donors and volunteers by entertaining the attending crowd with a show featuring the story and legacy of Nelson Mandela, which they performed in addition to the dance moves the youngsters have become famous for.
