It is heartwarming to know that at least 1,000 people in need of surgery, some having endured severe pain for years, are having those life-changing operations performed by healthcare professionals to honour the Mandela Day pledge of people donating time to good causes.
Gauteng’s health department said 700 patients would be operated on at 32 hospitals, some of which teamed up with the private sector, in “surgical marathons” that would reduce backlogs and restore the dignity of so many whose lives were affected by their medical conditions.
Procedures earmarked to be performed on Tuesday include arthroplasty, hernia repair, maxillofacial, hysterectomy, cataract excision, prostate biopsy, colostomy closures and circumcision.
Mandela Day marks the late former statesman’s birthday and encourages citizens to donate their time to charitable causes.
And, after a break during the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 350 people will receive life-changing surgery in public and private hospitals across the Western Cape in a project supported by Mediclinic, Life Healthcare, the Joint Care Trust and the Radiance Foundation among its partners.
Mandela Day marks the late former statesman’s birthday and encourages citizens to donate their time to charitable causes. And it is particularly heartwarming to observe each year how South Africans respond, setting aside their differences to work together for the greater good, right down to making toys from upcycled household materials — to put smiles on the faces of thousands of children in under-resourced communities on July 18.
“It is in your hands to make our world a better one for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalised,” Mandela once said, on the burning need to address poverty, suffering and deprivation.
Those words ring especially true in 2023 when poverty, inequality, hunger and desperation is a daily reality for so many people in South Africa.
Just think of what we could achieve as a nation, through partnerships like the ones that tackled these surgical backlogs, if we sustained a “Mandela Day” mindset once a month, for example, and kept the momentum going. The sky is the limit.
It is in your hands.
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