"Our lounge was full of teddy bears this Madiba Month"
Siblings from Umhlanga are absolutely humbled by the kindness of Durbanites who donated hundreds of fluffy toys this Mandela Month.
No matter how busy we all get in life, during the month of July we make a concerted effort to do some good.
Based on the principles of our late Tata Madiba, we come together to serve our communities in whichever way we can.
A young lady from Somerset Park, Umhlanga made the decision to spread joy to little kids in the form of cuddly teddy bears last year and continued her pursuit this year.
The idea came to her when her young cousin was visiting from Johannesburg and admired her teddy collection.
This is what she told the North Glen News: "My cousin, Aarav, who lives in Johannesburg, was visiting and he admired my teddy-bear collection. I saw the look of adoration when he spotted my teddy bears, and it got me thinking that I wanted to create that same feeling for other children."
Her spark of inspired kindness and willingness to share brought a collection of 550 fluffy toys last year, which were distributed around homes in the Durban area.
But this year, Tasmika Mahabir and her brother Akhil were astonished by the support from the community.
Their lounge area was the temporary nesting area for 970 fluffy toys, that were to be distributed around paediatric units around Durban this Mandela Month.
The success of the toy collection certainly brought smiles to the kids, the Mahabirs, as well as all the people who put forward their toy.
Check out more from East Coast Radio
Tasmika shared the following with North Glen News: "We are totally overwhelmed by the generosity of all those who donated. I didn’t expect us to surpass last year’s tally, but our lounge was full of teddy bears which was just fantastic. We intend to host a collection next year, as well, and our hope is this gets bigger and better. We would love to extend our footprint out of KZN even."
Image Courtesy of Facebook