This Mandela Day, R67 Becomes a Dignity Bag in a Patient's Hands
Nobody plans to be admitted to hospital. It happens on an ordinary Tuesday, after an accident, a collapse, a diagnosis that couldn't wait. And so people arrive in our public hospitals the way emergencies deliver them: with nothing. No soap. No toothbrush. No towel. The clothes they came in, and that's all.
Our teams have walked the wards of South Africa's public hospitals since 1997, and we have learned something about those first days of admission. Long before anyone asks for counselling, they need to feel human again. A wash. Clean teeth. A towel of their own. Small things, until you don't have them.
This Mandela Day, we're doing something about it — and we'd love you to be part of it.
The plan: 499 dignity bags
| On Saturday 18 July, volunteers at two packing hubs — Tygerberg Hospital in the Western Cape and De La Porte Oasis in Gauteng — will spend their 67 minutes packing 499 dignity bags. |
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Then, in the week that follows, the bags go where they matter. Not to a storeroom — into patients' hands, given by HospiVision's own hospital volunteers, the same people who walk those wards every week. Every single bag is a personal handover.
Why R67?
Mandela Day asks each of us for 67 minutes in service of others, one for every year Madiba gave to public life. We're asking for R67 instead: one rand for every one of those years. R67 covers the essentials in one bag. Our team will give the 67 minutes; we're asking you for the rand-a-year.
Where every rand goes
We believe you should see exactly what your donation buys, so our campaign page publishes the full cost of a bag, item by item, at the bulk prices we've negotiated — from the R16.32 bar of soap down to the shampoo we buy in 5-litre containers and decant by hand to keep it at R6.30 a bottle. The total comes to R86.07 per bag, and our full costing is open for anyone to inspect.
There's something else worth knowing about how this campaign works: every donation makes every bag cheaper. Because we buy in full wholesale cases, the more we raise, the further each case stretches — a bag costs R118 to fill at 100 bags, but only R86 at the full 499. Your R67 doesn't just add a bag to the pile. It brings the price of every other bag down with it.
Four ways to be part of it
Pick the one that fits — or all four.
Donate R67
One rand for every year Madiba gave us. R67 covers the essentials in one bag.
Donate on BackaBuddy
Give your 67 minutes
Pack bags with us on 18 July. Families welcome — children make excellent packers.
Donate items
Soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Vaseline, face towels — or those spare Woolworths bags at home.
Email us now
Share this post
Save the poster and pass it on — it costs nothing, and it reaches someone who can.
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Follow the bags
As donations come in, we'll post updates at every milestone — when the first 100 bags are funded, when the bulk orders are placed, and when the bags reach the wards in the week of 20 to 24 July. You'll be able to follow your R67 from donation to a patient's hands.
A bag of toiletries will not cure anyone. But it says something no medicine can: you are seen, and you matter. That has been HospiVision's message in South Africa's public hospitals for nearly thirty years. This Mandela Day, help us hand it over — 499 times... or more!
HospiVision NPC has provided counselling, spiritual care and psychosocial support in public hospitals since 1997, reaching more than 220,000 people since 2009.
