You're invited to breakfast with Helen Zille

I've blogged about the work that Third Thursday does before - so this post is to get you excited to make a booking for our 2012 event: a fundraising breakfast with the one and only Helen Zille. Here's the important info, before I give you the background:

Date etc: 14 July 2012, at 7am sharp
Venue: The Hilton Hotel, Sandton
Cost: R250pp, including breakfast and beverages
To book: email Helen Pournara
Reason 1 why you should buy a ticket or a table-full of tickets to our event:
We don't let our speakers charge us for their time, and we don't keep any silly 'admin fees' - so every penny that we raise will go to the Mthimkhulu Stimulation Centre in Soweto. This centre is run by volunteers who provide a place of safety for underprivileged mentally handicapped chlidren, so that their parents can go to work safe in the knowledge that their children are being properly cared for. The Centre receives government grants, when the government remembers to pay them, but they depend heavily on the kindness of donors for their day to day needs.

The funds that we raise at the breakfast will be used to buy the Centre a wheelchair-friendly vehicle, so that the parents don't have to struggle with taxis to get their children to the school. We need R450 000 to do this - so every penny helps.

Reason 2 why you should buy a ticket or a table-full of tickets to our event:
There are so many people in South Africa that need help, in so many different ways. Sometimes it's difficult to know where to start - and it's the South African Way to want to muck in and help. If you don't know where you can make a difference - this is a good place to start - by supporting our drive (no pun intended) to equip the centre with a vehicle that will help so much. 

Reason 3 why you should buy a ticket or a table-full of tickets to our event: 
You get to eat a damn fine breakfast in one of Sandton's most beautiful hotels, while listening to one of the country's most iconic women speak about her life and experiences. No politics in sight.

And just for fun - a few "Did You Know" items about Ms Zille:
- She exposed the truth about Steve Biko's death in her role as journalist at the Rand Daily Mail.
- She speaks four languages.
- She attended Johannesburg's St Mary's School for Girls.
- She and her husband offered their home as a safe haven for political activists in the 1980s.
- She was arrested for being in the 'wrong area' in the early 1980s, and was given a suspended prison sentence.
- She was such a thorn in the side of the then government that she and her then-two-year-old son had to go into hiding.

Want to find out more? Book your ticket now!