About 50 children from daycare centres and special-needs schools were treated to a kite festival in Heideveld, on Wednesday last week, by Cape Mental Health.
The sky over Heideveld Sports Field was filled with Steenberg kite flyer Bobby Gathoo’s brightly coloured swaeltjie kites. He has been flying kites since the age of 4.
The children came from Heideveld, Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha, and Cape Mental Health gave them kites to fly. The theme of this year’s event was “fly your dreams”.
Mr Gathoo said he wanted to give the less fortunate a chance to fly a kite because he had grown up in Lenasia, in Johannesburg, and had seen how opportunities could change the lives of those battling poverty.
“It is a beautiful atmosphere, and the laughter of kids makes it worthwhile. The kids are fascinated with the kites, and there’s lovely sunshine and wind, such a clean atmosphere.
“It is important to bring events like these to less fortunate communities because they often look down and feel depressed because of poverty, but now they can look up and see kites flying and forget about their problems.”
Cape Mental Health held its 28th annual kite festival at Melkbosstrand beach on Sunday October 9, to commemorate World Mental Health Day, on Monday October 10.
About 10 kiters flew their kites, and some 3000 people showed up during the course of the morning, according to Sandra Ellis, Cape Mental Health’s head of donor development.
It was important to have local kiters supporting the event because the Covid-19 pandemic had made it hard for international kiters to fly this year, she said.
The organisation had decided to hold another kite festival in Heideveld because of its “special relationship” with the community, she said.
“Our aim is to include children with disabilities and allow them to share a normal life because children don’t see disabilities; they just see children. Our annual event may not be accessible for everyone so we decided to bring it to the community.”
Heideveld mom Faiza Jongie said the children were thrilled to see the kites and fly some of them.
“It really is enjoyable for the kids, and the children are really excited for the kites because they don’t have many opportunities like this. Some of them don’t even know what a kite is. It is something new for many.”