A sprayathon and “man chocolate” in the name of charity
Witsies from the Knockando Hall of Residence and the Rotaract campus organisation spent last week giving back to the Johannesburg community. They spent the week fundraising for a children’s cancer foundation and also hosted thirty women from the Hillbrow community and surrounding areas at the Knockando residence in Parktown for a day of pampering.
Witsies from the Knockando residence and Rotaract raised over R6000 last week through a number of events that started with a sprayathon and culminated with the Choc Night event on Friday.
The two groups raised the funds for the CHOC (Children’s Haematology Oncology Clinics), a childhood cancer foundation. Both organisations then teamed up to host 30 disadvantaged women from Hillbrow for a day of pampering.
Ivhani Maselesele, chairperson of the Knockando house committee, said the event showcased poetry, gum boot dancing, modelling, acapella and “Knockando’s 50 shades of chocolate”.
“It was a night full of chocolate, man chocolate if you know what I mean,” said Nonhlanlha Ncube, the Rotaract committee chairperson. A few “Knockanian men” were auctioned off at the event to raise more funds after the sprayathon which amounted to R 6637.50.
“On one hour of sleep, we had to prepare for the women’s appreciation event, after Choc Night”, Maselesele said.
Thirty women between the ages of 20 and 60 were invited and pampered all day with manicures, massages, lunch and a mini shopping trip.
Some were caregivers at the Maliaka Children’s orphanage, some, grandmothers and others were women from rehab or had previously been abused.
“Because these women now work hard to provide for their children, we collected donated clothes which allowed them to also ‘shop’ at the event,” Ncube said.
The women were treated to gift bags containing sanitary towels, lipstick, lotion and nail polish, among other items, at the end of the day.
“The most amazing thing was realising that we had done exactly what we set out to do when an old gogo said, ‘ooh this young man reminds me of my late husband’, while I was massaging her,” Maselesele said.
Former house committee members attended the events which they described as “very successful and well attended,” and were pleased that the charitable traditions of the organisations have been carried out, since they were started in 2007.
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