Mandela Day gives back dignity

20 July 2015

 

Wheelchair-bound Yoliswa Parkies suffers from a rare Parkinson disease, which restricts her mobility and makes her feel uncomfortable most of the time.

 

But on Saturday the 60-year-old Orlando East, Soweto, resident was up and about, smiling from ear to ear as she was wheeled into the freshly painted Ekujabuleni Kwabadala Daycare Centre for the Aged, where she spends most of her weekdays.

 

Parkies was among several senior citizens who celebrated former president Nelson Mandela’s birthday at the Orlando East-based centre, which was given a major facelift by City of Johannesburg’s entities in honour of the late statesman’s legacy of selflessness. Mandela was Parkies’s hero and she could not miss this day for anything.

 

The centre, which operates from Monday to Thursday, was established in 1984 by the late social worker Irene Ntintili. It is run like a crèche and gives the elderly the opportunity to engage in activities such as sewing, knitting, gardening and indigenous games, as well as in physical exercise.

 

Because of the decaying state of its infrastructure, it was selected as one of the beneficiaries of Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo’s “67 Minutes for Mandela” initiative. Saturday was a special day for Parkies and her mates as they enjoyed being pampered by City employees. Due to its capacity challenges, the centre only caters for 60 senior citizens.

 

“As you can see, our centre looks new,” said Parkies, clad in a Mandela Day T-shirt. “The sprucing-up of the centre has done wonders. We are also proud to see that City employees and others out there do think about the elderly.”

 

Parkies said she was hopeful the revamping of the centre would lift her and her mates’ spirits. She was accompanied by her 67-year-old sister, Sarah Potso, who said her younger sibling used to work at a clothing factory before she was afflicted by the disease in 2009.

 

Potso said Parkies liked knitting even though she had a problem in coordinating the movement of her hands. Kgomotso Mogase, the centre’s director, was ecstatic at the City’s goodwill, saying it had made a huge difference.

 

“There are still some niggling challenges here and there but what happened today is amazing. This will no doubt go a long way towards bringing much-needed dignity to our elderly,” she said.