04 Nov 2013

Sekgoma Memorial Hospital's patient social welfare committee hosted a beauty pageant to raise funds towards helping the needy patients admitted at the hospital.

The event was held in Serowe on November 1 at Lady Khama Hall. Speaking in an interview after the pageant, the committee's secretary, Ms Khabenyana Kegatileng said the committee, which comprised the hospital staff and volunteers from the community, was formed after they realised that the needy in-patients sometimes ran out of basic things such as toiletry.

Ms Kegatileng said as a committee, they focused on raising funds for such patients to help them with their basic needs because most of them did not have proper support structures from their families. “They either come from impoverished families or from faraway places, thus it is hard for their families to look after them,” she said.

She added that PSWC also helped those who had to go abroad for operations in case they did not have passports, especially those from rural areas and RADS. “In such scenarios we liaise with the department of immigration and they have been very helpful,” she revealed.

The secretary said they normally depended on donors but as a committee they found it fitting to come up with fund raising initiatives to augment what they get from their donors. She also said the good thing about the event was that they managed to reach out to the masses and raise awareness about the committee and its intentions because most of the people were not aware of it. Ends