07 August 2014 - To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Apolinario Mabini, the Sublime Paralytic and the first Philippine Foreign Minister, as well as the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week this month of July, the Philippine Embassy in Pretoria undertook a charity mission on July 14 to the Thabang Mental Home in Soshanguve, Pretoria which cares for persons with different mental abilities.
Chargé d’affaires, a.i. Joselito Chad Jacinto, together with the staff and families of the Philippine Embassy personnel, shared lunch with the residents of the Thabang Mental Home and donated sacks of rice and boxes of chicken.
The Thabang Mental Home was established by Mrs. Lydia Mortuma Motlara, originally as a home for the aged. As time went by, Mrs. Motlara began to receive not only the aged but also persons with mental disabilities discharged by hospitals but have no homes to go to.
The Embassy was introduced to the Thabang Mental Home by Mrs. Ces Cunningham, a Filipina living in South Africa, who visits the home regularly to assist its patients in their needs.
The Embassy personnel conveyed to the residents of Thabang that there will always be people remembering them and that love and care for them shall never be wanting. END
