Annah Mametsa
Health and Safety/Women in Uniform
Nominee's Province:
Limpopo
Project Name/Description:
Nurse at W.F Knobel Hospital and Community Builder
Nurses, as regarded in most communities, are known to be community builders who have put the lives of the vulnerable before their own, in some instances, their own families.
Mametsa, unflinchingly, is known by her community as someone who does not think twice to use her salary to buy school uniforms, shoes, sanitary pads and pens for the needy. She also donates clothes and food parcels to needy families.
Further, learners in her community are privileged to be recognised through initiatives led by her, showing them a token of appreciation and motivating them.
Mametsa, besides her full-time job as a nurse, started her community projects in 2005. She was using her salary when she started Greenside Callies FC and Youth Club.
Mametsa says: “I aimed to unearth hidden talents and prevent drugs and substance abuse and decrease teenage pregnancies through health talks. My health talks extended to home visits to the patients at home doing ongoing support and DOT support. My house was a clubhouse where I shared with them the little I had.”
Though she was crowned community builder in the health category in 2023, Mametsa continues to do various initiatives on her own, without a registered non-profit organisation. She is adamant that impactful, life-changing aspects such as period poverty combated, no school absenteeism, players receiving fee sponsorship and education from sports academies, decrease teenage pregnancies, 100% pass rates, learners competing to get awards, confidence and smile boosted, and no bullying.
Madiba’s words: “There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return,” resonates strongly with Mametsa.
Mametsa says her words of encouragement are drawn from Mother Theresa: “If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one.” And the last one: “Helping hands are better than praying lips.”
