New lease on life for local mom and her son
A mother from Zandspruit has been carrying her severely disabled son for the past 13 years.
A mother from Zandspruit was in tears on Thursday, 28 February, when the employees of Silverstar presented her with a wheelchair for her son, who has cerebral palsy.
Xoliswa Luphepha has been living in Zandspruit for the past 20 years. Her son, Yamkela, is 13 years old.
Because Yamkela is severely disabled and needs help with almost everything, life has been very difficult for his 44-year-old mother. She has had to carry Yamkela everywhere, and he mostly just lies down.
The Sweethearts Foundation, started on 14 February 2013, collects plastic bottle tops and bread tags, which they then recycle in exchange for wheelchairs.
They work with corporate institutions, schools and other organisations to help them collect these tops and tags. One of these organisations is the team from Silverstar.
Employees of Silverstar collected enough tops and tags to help Yamkela and recently presented him and his mother with his brand new custom-made wheelchair.
When the wheelchair was unveiled, Xoliswa and the team from Silverstar could not contain their joy and there was not a dry eye in the house.
“February is the month of love, and on this, the last day of February, we end it off with an act of love. We are so happy to be celebrating our collective efforts in this way,” said Adele Wilson, Silverstar’s CSI Manager.
When the employees started collecting the tops and tags, they made it fun by running an inter-departmental competition to see which department collected the most. They are currently collecting for their next wheelchair.
Nondumiso Mngadi, head of the HR Department at Silverstar, said that it was good to know that together their employees could impact someone’s future in this way.
Jessica Gorden from the Sweethearts explained that in order to buy one wheelchair, they have to collect 450kg of tops and 55kg of tags.
To date the organisation has donated more than 300 wheelchairs and collected more than 40 tons of tops and five tons of tags.
Yamkela received a custom-made Spiderman wheelchair.
“The day he went for his assessment he was wearing a Spiderman shirt, and we thought that would be perfect,” added Adele.
After the handover, Yamkela and his mom were taken to the staff area at Silverstar where all the employees who helped to make this dream possible, were waiting for them.
There was also another surprise as Yamkela was pushed through the crowd – Spiderman came running out and every employee received a Spiderman cupcake to celebrate.
