CSIR International Convention Centre brings happy smiles to abandoned children

The CSIR International Convention Centre (ICC) has donated chair cov­ers, note­pads, pens, 1 000m2 of car­pets (with under­felt), shirts, jack­ets, bags and more than 200 table­cloths to the Mohau Children’s Home in Atteridgeville.

“The chil­dren have been very cold lately as a res­ult of cable theft, and the car­pets could not have come at a bet­ter time,” says centre man­ager Ester Jaca. According to Jaca, the facil­ity has also been in need of table­cloths for some time as their din­ing tables were bare. “Our din­ing room and board­room will look very bright and wel­com­ing with these smart new table­cloths,” she smiles ...

Photograph: Children in the pre-school will now be able to lie down and play on a warm and car­peted floor.

It was through its asso­ci­ation with the Tshwane Tourism Association that the CSIR ICC first heard about Mohau Children’s Home’s ster­ling work among dis­ad­vant­aged com­munit­ies in greater Tshwane. The ICC decided to assist. Community involve­ment lies close to the heart of the CSIR ICC staff, who reg­u­larly donate food to Jakaranda Kinderhuis and Bramley Centre in Pretoria whenever a sur­plus is experienced.

“Although we have sup­por­ted sev­eral char­it­ies in the past, it is always infin­itely reward­ing to assist care facil­it­ies that do such excep­tional work as Mohau,” says Bronwen Cadle, CSIR International Convention Centre Marketing and Sales Manager. “We would like to chal­lenge all Tshwane hos­pit­al­ity estab­lish­ments to take part in ini­ti­at­ives such as Mohau.”

Mohau Children's Home opened its doors in 1997 as a res­id­en­tial care facil­ity for orphaned, abused, aban­doned, neg­lected and ter­min­ally ill chil­dren and their fam­il­ies who are infec­ted or affected by HIV/Aids. The Home provides tem­por­ary or per­man­ent res­id­en­tial care and community-based social services.

Photograph: Refilwe Nchebisang, CSIR ICC Public Relations Intern (left) hands over the CSIR ICC dona­tion to Ester Jaca, man­ager of the Mohau Children’s Home.

Mohau is based in the Kalafong Hospital grounds due to the dire need exper­i­enced at Kalafong and Pretoria Academic Hospitals — it is there that babies are often aban­doned by their moth­ers who are infec­ted by the HIV virus.

However, it soon became clear that the need for a care facil­ity around greater Tshwane was far big­ger than anti­cip­ated, not only for chil­dren infec­ted by HIV/Aids, but also for those affected by the impacts of the pan­demic. In 2004, the Mohau Children's Home bought their first satel­lite house in Kilner Park, a res­id­en­tial area on the north-eastern side of Pretoria, which made it pos­sible to increase the num­ber of chil­dren accom­mod­ated from 35 to 45.

Jaca explains that the main reason for the pur­chase of the satel­lite house was to rein­teg­rate chil­dren back into com­munit­ies as the National Children’s Act does not allow the Home to accom­mod­ate chil­dren of 18 years and older.

How to get involved:
For more inform­a­tion about Mohau Children’s Home, or to make a dona­tion please visit www.mohau.za.org, or con­tact Ester Jaca on 012 318 6762.

Note:
The CSIR International Convention Centre has a pro­gramme in place to train people from pre­vi­ously dis­ad­vant­aged com­munit­ies in skills required for employ­ment in the cater­ing industry. Many of the trained indi­vidu­als are then employed by the CSIR on a full-time or part-time basis, or they apply for jobs else­where using their newly acquired skills. Another arm of the Centre's com­munity ser­vice is the dona­tion of food or con­sum­ables that are not used dur­ing an event to char­it­ies in and around Pretoria. These dona­tions are made on a reg­u­lar basis on behalf of the event host, who is cred­ited by name for the contribution.

For fur­ther inform­a­tion, con­tact:
Refilwe Nchebisang, Public Relations and Marketing Intern
Tel: (012) 841 3770