23 January 2018
The Trade Route Mall and Salaamedia #LoveHopeCare Postcard Campaign has come to an immensely successful end. Close to 6000 postcards bearing messages from South African children will be sent to other young people around the world facing war, poverty, famine and destruction.
The postcards were stuck up at the Lifestyle Court of the Trade Route Mall in Lenasia for the last two months as flocks of kids came down to help in completing the mammoth task.
The first set of postcards will be delivered to children at a paediatric hospital in Baidoa, Somalia. There are currently over 360 000 children facing starvation in the region due to an ongoing drought.
The hospital has also been supported by Salaamedia and its humanitarian wing, the Salaam Foundation with medication and nutrition supplements.
Yaseen Valli, the owner of the Trade Route Mall, played a key role in ensuring the project has been a success. “The power of a single message of hope to a child in a disastrous situation is sometimes all they need to help them get through to the next day, to see the light again,” he said. “We want these suffering kids to know that we do love them, there is hope and there are people in the world who care about them.”
Schools from as far afield as Port Shepstone, Polokwane, Pietermaritzburg and Durban participated. Many postcards reflected on the walls of the mall were also specially prepared by learners from Lenasia.
Salaamedia’s Azhar Vadi said he was pleasantly surprised by the level of commitment to the campaign by the young learners. “Each card has a unique and special message. The care and consideration that has gone into preparing these cards has been fantastic. I’m certain it will help bring a message of love and hope to the recipients.”
Well known humanitarian, Qari Ziyad Patel of the Al Imdaad Foundation, was also attended the closing of the campaign. His organisation received a contribution of R808 000 for the implementation of relief projects to assist the Rohingya people who have become refugees in Bangladesh following the genocide in Myanmar recently.
