Local is Lekker: aha Hotels

LOCAL IS LEKKA

 

Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre, as part of the aha Hotels & Lodges the

property management business of Tourvest’s Accommodation and Activities division,

spent 2016’s Madiba Day doing justice to the legendary late statesman,

philanthropist and scholar, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

 

As a proud Benoni-based business, Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre, along

with its hard working and committed team, hosted Nyeleti’s Children’s Home and

delivered a fun day that included pony rides, lunch, gifts and sweetie packs to take

home, all in celebration of the late-great Madiba’s big day.

 

The Nyeleti’s Children’s home is an inter-denominational organisation caring for

abused, homeless children and orphans. They provide shelter, food, clothing and

education to integrate coping and self-sufficient people into the community when

the time requires it. Their local church services assist them in spiritual support and

personal wellbeing, regardless of race colour or creed – just some of the many

reasons why the team at Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre wanted to lend a

The home currently provides for 28 children, 14 of which are orphans. The remaining

14 children stay with their destitute single parents, some of which are HIV positive.

The home’s most urgent need is child sponsorship of R1500, per child, per month.

 

That money buys each child food, schooling and transportation, amongst other

“It’s a privilege to be in a position to be able to effect positive change,” says aha

Hotels & Lodges CEO Neil Bald. “As a business invested in the area, being able to

uplift, support and grow the community around us is key. It’s something that makes

being a part of Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre and the aha group, a

wonderful space in which to serve.”

 

 

aha hotels and lodges manages a collection of hotels and lodges throughout Southern

Africa, including the Western Cape, North West Province, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga,

Limpopo, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

 

For more information visit our website:

http://aha.co.za 

Never forget how you started

Normally the posts on this blog are and will be about entertainment, but I felt the need to write some thoughts that had been daunting me today.

I was with my family and we were leaving the mall. An oldish entleman was begging for money and the natural instinct is to close the windows just in case that man, like so many before him, tries to hijack us, steal from us or try to kill us. So anyway this man also like so many before him ended up being an innocent begger who was just looking for an extra buck to get through the day.

One of my family members said "I hate having to close the window" ,which is something we all hate doing. But as she said that, and not an offense to her because like I said I have so often thought  and said the same thing, in my head thought " oh well sorry that his being poor inconviences us". And I stopped in my tracks of thought process and was like WHAT THE HECK.  Firstly, what she did wasn't wrong and I was not in anyway aiming that thought at her, but rather myself because I never truly thought about the guy on the other side. I mean I have but never to the sense where I thought their presence may be an inconvenience to my life. Which of course in its own sense is wrong.

Our natural instinct is to either give the guy a Rand or two and carry out with our days or ignore him and hope he doesn't haras you for the 3 minutes you may be stuck at a traffic light for.  I have often thought about what my life would be if I was in that situation, but never has a thought haunted me this badly.

This could honestly and truly be anyone of us, and I feel I, myself take things in my life for granted. I guess sometimes we need a reality check, that it doesn't matter how rich you are, you could still fall into a situation where you would be standing on the other side of the window so desperate, asking for money to survive.  Your dignity stripped, your integrity questioned on a daily basis and your faith in humanity slipping day by day, car by car. What if you were so desperate to provide for your family, or buy another drink to the numbness of your pain to get through the life that has been dealt to you, and someone closed their window in your face?

I am truly guilty of doing this myself, especially when I drive alone, but I think I will definitely think twice before being so quick to throw my hand on the button to raise my window.

If anything I have to remember that we all start somewhere and we could all be in a situation out of our control.