Mandela Day – Make a difference, Join us

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead”
– Nelson Mandela

What is ”Mandela Day”?

Information from the Nelson Mandela Foundation:
Mandela Day is a global call to action for citizens of the world to take up the challenge and follow in the admirable footsteps of Nelson Mandela, a man who transformed his life, served his country and freed his people. Its objective is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better and in so doing, to build a global movement for good.

”Take action, Inspire change – Make every day a Mandela Day” - These inspirational words from The Nelson Mandela Foundation encourage each one of us to simply do good every day, living Nelson Mandela’s legacy and helping to build the country of our dreams. Mandela Day is dynamic and ever-changing: it belongs to everyone and can take place anywhere, at any time.

Nelson Mandela International Day was launched in recognition of Nelson Mandela’s  birthday on 18 July, 2009 via unanimous decision by the UN General Assembly. It is more than a celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy. It is a global movement to honour his life’s work and act to change the world for the better.

The HOPE Centre supports Itsoseng in honour of Mandela Day, 17th July

Project HOPE South Africa is supporting Itsoseng, an informal settlement in the outskirts of Johannesburg, in honour of Mandela day on the 17th of July by reviving their community garden. Project HOPE aims to plant herbs and provide training to community gardeners to make the revived garden sustainable.

Health awareness is already a key focus for Project HOPE’s HOPE Centre staff and we are constantly identifying ways to raise awareness in new communities. The Mandela Day project in Itsoseng is no exception:

”We already have a success story from Kopano Garden in Zandspruit where community members and patients from the HOPE Clinic are involved, working together to make some extra money, learn about gardening, and for most; to better their health”. We see a high interest for creating the same in Itsoseng and want to make it happen.” – says Portia Zulu, Health Education & Training Officer for Project HOPE South Africa.

We are hoping for a high level of interest on Mandela Day – from both community members and volounteers. The aim of the project is to revive the community garden and train community members on how to take care of their garden so that it is sustainable. The aim of the garden is to promote a healthy lifestyle, reduce food security issues, and create an income for the garden members.

We need YOUR help to make this happen!

To turn this piece of land into a sustainable and lush garden of herbs, we need your help! The 17th of July, in honour of Mandela Day, is the day when the transformation is happening.

So, do a good deed and make a difference for the community members in Itsoseng! Come and help us transform this land and hand it over to the community.

We are in need of sponsors and donations

Our goal is to make this a sustainable project which means we are in need of kind sponsors and donations, both for Mandela Day itself and for the long-term.

If your company or organization sponsors the Itsoseng Garden, we are happy to show everyone our gratitude on social media and on our website in appreciation.
See the list of what we need here:

Thank You!

Please contact Refilwe or Portia to let us know of your interest in contributing or for further questions or information.

Refilwe Lechoba – HOPE Centre Program Coordinator

Email: rlechoba@projecthope.org
Phone: 010 210 7335/ 076 133 8426

Portia Zulu - Health Education & Training Officer

Email: pzulu@projecthope.org
Phone: 079 021 3804 

Read more about Mandel Day here – Nelson Mandela Foundation

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Time to take a dose of my own medicine!

So I have a confession to make. The past few weeks I haven’t been feeling particularly well. Lots of headaches, dizziness; in particular when working out at the gym; sometimes feeling like my heart is going to explode out of my chest.

To put this into some sort of context I run a large scale, community based diabetes and hypertension program on the outskirts of Johannesburg for Project HOPE. As the boss of a team of ten staff, I try to be a role model to them and to the hundreds of patients we see monthly. Part of my role is to educate patients on the signs and symptoms of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, tell them how they can improve their lifestyles which will in turn improve their health and either reduce their risk of getting one of these diseases, of help improve their control of the disease.

I know what range your blood pressure should be in, what it does to your body when its too high, what uncontrolled sugar in your bloodstream can do to your eyes, nerves, and kidneys. I’m no expert, no doctor, but pretty well versed in these things as its my job.

So maybe you can see where this is going? After lots of putting it off I  make an appointment to see our doctor at our local private clinic. I go and explain to the doc my symptoms, thinking that its low blood sugar as its happening at the gym (I don’t eat before working out). She knows what I do for a living so we talk, she takes some blood and then I go lie on her couch for my blood pressure reading. “Stefan”, she says, “your blood pressure is 160/110!” “Ahhh,” I say, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together in my head. She tells me that we will wait for the blood results, not to exercise for the next couple of days and see her a few days later for a repeat blood pressure reading.

The next couple of days bothered me. I was wondering why me? I exercise 4-5 times per week. I am not obese, but ok, could stand to lose a few pounds if I am honest. I may drink 2-3 beers per week. Have no immediate family history of high blood pressure. Sure like my food, but love fruit, eat veg and if I am honest have a fondness for MacDonald Big Mac burgers! I also started to think about epigenetics – was there an environmental occurrence in-utero that could have impacted my kidneys which predisposes me to greater risk of high blood pressure? I then start thinking about what my blood test results will be – what will my fasting sugar be like – please God, its got to be preferably below 5.6 mmol/l and definitely below 7.0 mmol/l.

I go back to the doctor with a splitting headache – probably more stress than anything. We go through my blood results – I recognize most of them as we carry them out on our patients at our clinic. They are all normal. I go lie on the couch at she takes my blood pressure again at its still 160/100. So, to my surprise I have been diagnosed with stage 2 hypertension.

We go sit back at her desk and talk about drug options. Hypertension has been classed as a chronic disease, and if you look at all the literature, the majority of people who start medication for hypertension don’t come off of it. We settle for a combination drug – HCTZ and a beta blocker and a check up in three months time to see if I can come off the medication.

So you might be wondering what the big deal about all this is? Its not like I am going to die, have a really serious illness that’s going to kill me soon. In fact many people in my situation would just and do, resign to the fact that they have high blood pressure, take their medicine and continue with their lives.

Well for me, being an educator I want to see if it is actually realistically possible for me to follow the advice that we give our patients and see if I can improve my health. There is nothing like a dose of my own medicine.

After some research, I decide that it would be good to lose 10kg to begin with. That will take me from 100kg down to 90kg – a 10% weight loss which according to the American Diabetes Association should see improvements in my health. I will follow the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet – voted in the US for being the healthiest diet to follow by the National Institutes of Health. The basic premise of the diet is to reduce the amount of sugar that you eat – simple carbs, eat healthy fats, lots of starchy vegetables, some fruit and lean protein. If you eat carbs it should be complex carbs – brown rice, whole wheat bread – but still in limited amounts.

Will I make it? I am not sure, but I will give it a good try? Are you in a similar position to me? Would you like to make some lifestyle changes that will see improvements in your health in 2013? Let me know, maybe we can go down this road together - slawson@projecthope.org

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2011 World Diabetes Congress, Dubai

Greetings from Dubai! I'm attending the World Diabetes Congress which is hosted by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) every two years bringing together experts in diabetes and other non communicable diseases from across the globe for a week of interesting lectures and workshops. Topics vary from the latest medical research into the development of an artifical pancreas to providing health education on diabetes in rural settings.

I have spent most of my time getting to know the various African diabetes associations, picking up contact details and learning about the challenges that they face as we look forward into 2012 and the expansion of our diabetes work across the continent. I have met people from Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya all saying that diabetes is a growing problem in their respective countries, and all looking for help to address the various challenges that they are facing. Its a very exciting time to be working in this health area, and particualarly on the continent of Africa which according to the IDF will experience the highest growth rate in diabetes prevalence (90% growth) over the next 20 years and yet at the same time very challenging considering it has the least amount of money available to spend on addressing the problem currently.

Project HOPE has a booth in the exhibition hall and in talking with the various people that have stopped by  it is clear that organisationally we are positioned really well in terms of the need that is out there in the various countries. From both health professional education like we currently do in India as well as looking into innovative ways of getting health messaging and diagnosis and management services across to patients in resource poor settings where health professionals simply arent around such as in rural and urban poor areas of South Africa Project HOPE is working hard to find solutions and bring a better quality of life to those that are currently underserved.

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