Healing of Memories Gala Dinner!

A  gala dinner will be held on September 7 in support of the KwaZulu-Natal branch of a healing institute founded by an Anglican priest who was maimed by an apartheid bomb.

The Institute for Healing of Memories was founded by Anglican Fr Michael Lapsley 20 years ago. Fr Lapsley, a prominent human rights activist, lost both his hands and an eye in a letter bomb attack by the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a covert outfit of the apartheid security forces.

In 1998 Fr Lapsley started the Healing of Memories workshops to run parallel with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The Institute for Healing of Memories in KwaZulu-Natal focuses on healing of memories processes, restoring-humanity projects with young people, and community-healing dialogues.

“The Institute finds a heightened application in community programmes that address traumatic, civil and physical issues like political violence, domestic and gender-based violence against women and children, bullying in schools, addiction as well as many other issues relevant in our communities around the province,” said the institute’s Kurt Holmes.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the funeral of Winnie Mandela, spoke about us all as a hurting people, wounded by our past, numbed by our present and uncertain about our future,” Mr Holmes said.

“The president’s words have brought into focus our unhealed wounds and the desperate need for healing that we, as a nation and as a province have,” he said.

“The work of the Institute for Healing of Memories is grounded in the belief that we all need healing because of what we have done, what we have failed to do and what has been done to us.”

That work is, however, hampered by financial constraints. “We are in need of funding and partnerships with businesses interested in the work of the institute, especially here in KZN,” Mr Holmes said.

The September 7 fundraising gala dinner at the Protea Edward Hotel will raise funds for its work in KwaZulu-Natal. Fr Michael Lapsley and Anglican Bishop Dino Gabriel of the diocese of KwaZulu-Natal will be the speakers.

For details on how to support the institute, contact Alphonse Niyodusenga or Bridget Phillips at 031 301-0419 or Kurt Holmes at 062 119-7668.