No one ever associates warmth with fish or the ocean. In fact, isn’t the sea where we frolic on a warm sunny day in order to escape the heat of the sun? However, when we heard about the plight of Nothemba Educare in Khayelitsha, we at the Two Oceans Aquarium felt compelled to bring a little warmth and joy into the lives of these little ones.
Nothemba Educare is responsible for 50 children, from infants to five-year-olds. What started as an initiative by our Green Team quickly became a staff project and before we knew it, everyone, including MD Dr Pat Garratt, was either contributing or buying blankets in order to keep these precious ones warm this winter.
I guess that’s why I am proud to work at the Aquarium. We by no means have the largest staff complement; in fact, I think we don’t even total 100 permanent staff. We do, however, know what it means to work as a team in order to make things work. This, like countless other initiatives we have undertaken, is neither funded nor subsidised by our company. These are charitable acts by concerned individuals. My family at the Aquarium are not well off, and in these tough economic times it really does take sacrifice in order to give to others.
But, to get back to my initial thoughts, we are not cold-hearted here at the Aquarium. What we lack in resources and in capacity, we more than make up for in warmth and love in our hearts. So, you may ask, why were there no newspaper reports of us donating all these blankets to Nothemba Educare on Mandela Day, and why did we not have any TV cameras around? Well, I guess we would rather have the appreciation of these little ones than seek the recognition of the world. And, if you were there to see how their faces lit up when we gave them their blankets, you too would agree that this was all the reward we needed.
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