Honouring Mandela Month Through Healing Hands

For Operation Healing Hands, Mandela Month is more than just a date on the calendar — it’s where our story began. What started as a single Mandela Day initiative has grown into a movement of healing, restoring dignity, and giving hope to people who otherwise might never have had access to life-changing care. Every July, we are reminded of that beginning — and every patient we serve carries that legacy forward.

This July, we were privileged to walk alongside dozens of patients whose lives will never be the same. Each operation was more than a procedure — it was a gift of sight, movement, comfort, and relief. It was Nelson Mandela’s legacy of service, lived out in hospital theatres, consulting rooms, and recovery wards across Pretoria.

A Month of Sight Restored

Cataract surgeries transformed the lives of patients like Kenani Ndlovu, Elise Tolmay, Antonella Venter, Rachel Conradie, Mohau Machete, Petrus Boshoff, and Minni Marais. For many, years of cloudy vision cleared in an instant, opening up a brighter, more independent future. And in the case of Dinah Selwane, a cornea transplant brought the extraordinary gift of restored sight — a powerful reminder of how priceless these interventions are.

Mobility and Freedom Returned

For others, Mandela Month meant the return of mobility. Jan Vermaak, Mame Ghartey, Marietjie Loots, Louiza Unger, Anneke Jonker, Wilna Mynardt, and Judith Maritz each received hip or knee replacements — procedures that will let them walk without pain, reclaim their independence, and embrace life with new energy. These moments are why we exist: to restore not just function, but freedom.

Children Given a Healthier Start

July also saw a wave of young patients at Club Surgical and Centurion Day Hospital, receiving grommets, tonsillectomies, and adenoidectomies. Children like Joshua Sutherland, Mickayla Klopper, Christianne Botha, Chantelle Page, Juvan and Zean Cory, Thabang Sethole, Jayce van Wyk, Kylen de Beer, Boitumelo Mapataka, and many more can now breathe easier, hear better, and grow stronger. These may seem like “small” procedures, but for a child’s development — they change everything.

Complex Cases, Courageous Journeys

Mandela Month also gave us the privilege of standing with patients facing serious challenges.

• Jinnelee Jansen van Vuuren underwent a complex scoliosis corrective surgery — a life-altering intervention made possible by the collaboration of skilled surgeons, caring partners, and generous donors.
• Corene Myburgh received intricate muscle releases and a skin graft, while Matt Keyser had contracture repairs and grafting to restore function to his arm.
• Susanna Vorster had a basal cell carcinoma removed, while Tina Bezuidenhout and Leandra Stander received treatment for painful conditions affecting their joints and skin.

Each of these stories is a testament to resilience — and to what’s possible when compassion meets expertise.

Carrying Mandela’s Legacy Forward

In total, over 40 patients received life-changing interventions during July. Each smile after bandages were removed, each step taken with new joints, each parent watching their child sleep peacefully after surgery — these are the real celebrations of Mandela Month.

See all our patients for Mandela Month here

We began as a Mandela Day initiative. Today, every July is our reminder that we don’t just honour Madiba by serving for 67 minutes — we honour him by building a legacy of healing, one patient at a time.

Because at Operation Healing Hands, Mandela Month is not just where we started — it’s who we are.