Albertina Sisulu - Community Work

Community Work

For more than 50 years, Albertina committed herself to The Albertina Sisulu Foundation, which works to improve the lives of small children and old people. She was honoured for her commitment to the anti-apartheid struggle and her social work when the World Peace Council, based in Basel, Switzerland, elected her president from 1993 to 1996. She recruited nurses to go to Tanzania, to replace British nurses who left after Tanzanian independence. The South African nurses had to be "smuggled" out of SA into Botswana and from there they flew to Tanzania.

The Albertina Sisulu Multipurpose Resource Centre/ASC, named after Albertina Sisulu, was also founded by Albertina. It was founded under the auspices of the Albertina Sisulu Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that was established by the Sisulu Family. Weeks later, she and Mandela opened the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa in Johannesburg, named for her late husband. She became a trustee for the centre and helped fundraise for it.

Albertina and her family were residents of Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa, when it was established. Mrs. Sisulu has witnessed firsthand the development of the community where the Sisulu family lived, sorely lacking in social services and despite enormous obstacles, has committed herself to alleviating the hardships of the community. The Albertina Sisulu Multipurpose Resource Centre/ASC provides the following services:

• A school for children with special needs –severe/moderate intellectual challenge – resource school
• An Early Childhood Development Centre for learners from the age of three years
• A section for the out of school youth with disabilities established with an intention to provide them with skills which would render them employable and active participants in the country‘s economy
• A nutrition programme for the needy earners
• A multi-purpose community hall
• An outreach program