A Mandela Day to cherish at Thusong
ALEXANDRA - For the more than 600 youth registered at the Thusong Youth Centre, Mandela Day will be a day that will linger long in their minds.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory partnered with two businesses to bring smiles to the children of Thusong and to generate support for its programmes.
Thusong, a non-profit organisation, works with orphaned children within the community and children from child headed homes, underprivileged children and vulnerable children from socially unstable families.
Thusong’s aim is to provide a stable environment with guidance and access to key resources and life skills in order to assist them to manage their day to day lives, access opportunities and provide for themselves and their families.
It is involved in a number of programmes in this regard including training and skills development in fields such as sewing, computer skills, public speaking, visual arts, kung-fu, karate classes, gymnastics, trampoline and aerobics.
A recording studio, counselling and rehabilitation of paroled convicts, an active learning and toy library, drama, dancing and music classes and other performing arts, are all included in the programme. In addition, mathematics lessons for grade 8-12 and a daily feeding scheme are but part of the many activities at the centre.
Businessmen Paul da Silva and Brian Mervis went over and above their 67 minutes to give the children of Thusong a special Mandela Day experience.
“Local partners such as these are the drivers of change. Their work and contribution sends home the message that anything is possible when people get together to do something for the common good. And Mandela Day is about exactly this – taking action to inspire change,” said Sello Hatang, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.