July 18, 2019 Dyer Island Conservation Trust
The Dyer Island Conservation Trust believes that every day is Mandela Day, but still, the team thought it a good idea to share some tea and cake with some special guests.
The Trust’s key project, the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary, started making bags of newspaper a few years ago, but they needed an extra pair of hands. That was when Mariaan Burger, a local Gansbaai resident, stepped in offering her time and energy to the project. Mariaan was encouraged by Trust founder, Wilfred Chivell, to start a ‘production line’ so that the Great White House and any other interested businesses could buy and use these newspaper bags. Now every Tuesday a group of dedicated residents from the Silwerjare service centre for older persons in Blompark, meet to enjoy some time together whilst producing bags of varying sizes. These bags are then purchased for use at the Great White House curio shop and have proved to be quite a hit with guests from all over the world. The extra income from the bags is used for the group outings.
The Silwerjare group enjoyed some tea and cake whilst they placed their brand new project stickers on the bags. The stickers carry the Trust logo and a logo created especially for the project. The stickers were kindly printed by SignFactory (Empangeni), at no cost. Susan Visagie, of the Great White House, stopped in to thank everyone for their time and commitment to the project. “We really hope more businesses in Gansbaai will reduce their use of plastic bags and consider supporting this worthy project,” said Susan.
Special thanks to: Build It Gansbaai and Marie Fourie for discounted prices on materials needed for production.
Nelson Mandela International Day has enjoyed 10 years of global support and solidarity since it was launched in 2009.
This year the Nelson Mandela Foundation has launched a new Mandela Day strategy, titled: Mandela Day: The Next Chapter, to mark the tenth anniversary of the initiative. In these next 10 years, let us mobilise people, governments, civil society and corporates to focus on these 5 areas: education and literacy, food and nutrition, shelter, sanitation and active citizenship. www.mandeladay.com
