Good News

BULLETIN 11 April 

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# Since Tuesday, children have been getting reconstructive surgeries for Smile Week at the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria. At the end of the week, 22 children would have undergone surgery, thanks to the Smile Foundation and the Good Morning Angels. Since its inception in 2002, the foundation has assisted more than four-thousand children from disadvantaged backgrounds to get reconstructive surgery to correct cleft lips and cleft palates, facial paralysis and burn wounds.

Meanwhile, the University of the Witwatersrand says it will continue to offer ear and hearing care services to local communities. Last month, 26 children and 73 adults received free screening. More than 20 people were referred to government clinics or hospitals for further diagnostic testing. Wits’s Professor Karin Joubert says one of the barriers to seeking hearing care is the stigma associated with hearing loss, therefore reducing the stigma may make more people comfortable in getting help.

# The South African Guide-Dog Association hopes to assist 500 visually impaired people through its Give a Cane Campaign. It has set a target to raise up to 550-thousand-rand to purchase canes for the visually impaired. The association’s College of Orientation and Mobility is celebrating 50 years of training, having trained over 180 practitioners who have collectively reached over 100-thousand visually impaired people. The campaign is running until the 18th of July.

# Fourteen-year-old Irish actress Alisha Weir is featured on the new Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. She is the second-youngest person on the list in Forbes Under 30 Europe Entertainment history. Others who have made the list include Alejandro Benlloch and Bruno Casanovas, who founded the fast-growing Spanish streetwear line Take the Nude Project. The 300 founders and entrepreneurs featured on this year’s list consist of 30-percent women, 62-percent men and one-percent non-binary, and have a total social media following of over 262-million.

# And, researchers at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Zoology and Entomology, and the Agricultural Research Council, have discovered nine new trapdoor spider species in the Great Karoo. The university’s Shannon Brandt says the tally of trapdoor spider species known to be found in the Great Karoo alone is now at 23:

Stay tuned for more news………….