Palesa Saleni decided to give her 8th birthday party to those in need after she learned at school that, due to circumstances, some kids in orphanages don’t even know when their actual birthdays are.
South Africa (13 August 2015) – A couple of weeks before her birthday, Palesa told her mom about what she had learnt at school and how she wanted to rather give those less fortunate a proper birthday party, as she has already had so many.
Sikhanyisile, Palesa’s mother, asked around and, after finding an orphanage-in-need in Benoni, posted the call-to-action in a group on Facebook.
Loads of people jumped on board and assisted with donations to create a party that the kids, and Palesa would never forget.
“The kids had the most amazing time, they loved the day so much… they even gave an unplanned gratitude speech which left us all in tears.”
Palesa also had an incredible time and made some lifelong friends along the way. She has decided that she will give her birthday away every year from now on.
Sikhanyisile is helping her daughter and many others by launching a campaign called #OurBirthday, where Palesa and others will be able to share their birthdays with orphanages around South Africa.
“Next year I want to see more than just one orphanage celebrating on my birthday, I am going to get as many as possible to have a great day together and maybe when I’m older and have the money, I will hire buses to take all the kids-in-need to the zoo for my birthday.”
We salute Palesa for being an inspiration to all of us and also give massive thanks to both Nadia and Jessica from Burnt Perfectly for the amazing donations!
We can’t post all the pics as some of the children are there for safety reasons, but here’s one of the birthday girls and Jess, who bakes all the yummy cupcakes.
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