News Release to "The Herald"

LDS Church Members Celebrate Nelson Mendela’s Birthday through service

Local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints celebrated Nelson Mendela’s birthday this week by hosting a party and providing gifts for patients at the Sybenham Retirement Village and by donating layettes for newborns at the Dora Ngiza hospital.  The layettes included baby blankets, hand knitted sweaters and hats, nappies and jumpers. 

Lorraine Ward Relief Society Sisters partnered with a young adult ward in Orem, Utah which funded the project in the U.S.  (The LDS Relief Society is the oldest women’s organization in America.)  The young adults in Orem learned about the need for such items from Sister Stokoe, a missionary in Port Elizabeth.  She told Everett Young, her brother-in-law, that some newborns were being taken home wrapped in newspaper.  The local sisters sponsored a project to make baby blankets for these children last year.  The members of Young’s Orem ward wanted to help.  They took up a collection and the money was presented to Janette Lake, president of the Lorraine Ward Relief Society, in April. 

Material was purchased and the kits were put together.  Celeste Teixeira-Swiegelaar reported that these items were sorely needed as the hospital was close to running out of blankets for new borns.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the sponsor of “Helping Hands,” an organization which holds a day of service throughout the world on August 18 each year.