Nonni's Home Away-from-Home
During Marelize’s illness, there was one true Godsend, and her name is Jurenne. For the last 4 months of her sickness, Jurenne was there daily to help us take the best care of Marelize.
This is our way of saying “Thank You” to Jurenne and all she’s continuing to do.
7.5% of every sale of Marelize’s work is donated to the aptly named: ‘Nonni’s Home-Away-from-Home daycare centre for the elderly (‘Nonni’ is what Jurenne called Marelize).
During those 4 months of care, Marelize and her carer Jurenne, formed an exceptional bond. In one topic of conversation, Jurenne told Marelize what she does in her community and how she’d love to keep caring for people in their hours of need. Especially older people in her local impoverished community don’t have access to decent medical or home care. And this got her to start and make 'Nonni's Home-Away-from-Home'.
This is over and above an already active self-funded soup kitchen that Jurenne runs in Wellington, just outside Cape Town called Jureen’s Soup Kitchen. It is in an impoverished community that is struggling to make ends meet and she saw a need to help where she could.
What started as a small community enterprise has grown, and she now runs a weekly soup kitchen every Tuesday for the Wellington community, feeding around 450 people, and the number keeps climbing.
If this isn’t enough, she also runs a workshop for the aged on Thursdays where she helps about 50 people with knitting and beadwork. The products they make such as jerseys, socks, etc. are distributed to the local creches in the area.
She and her team use their own money along with small donations from the community to fund the feeding scheme and they are often in need of extra appliances such as a kettle or urn, large pots, a stove, microwave, etc. For the elderly, they could always do with donations of wool and knitting needles. Not to mention a need for school shoes, warm clothes, and things for the kids.
The community, like everywhere else, is struggling and what Jureen is doing is helping relieve just a little of the burden and, more so, fill a few stomachs every week. A portion of the proceeds of each artwork sold by the late Marelize, now goes towards keeping Jureens Soup Kitchen open on Tuesdays, ensuring that the elderly can continue to meet each Thursday, and helping with the daily needs for Nonni’s Home-Away-from-Home care for those less fortunate.
Marelize always believed in “paying it forward” and this is her way of spreading the love and making a difference. Even though she is no longer with us, she is with us!
“A Spiritual Samaritan lives knowing that if we were to leave this world tomorrow, we were the best humans we could be and we touched the lives of as many souls as possible. We are not asked to be perfect. We are asked to try and make a difference in the world.”
