A Wonder Bag is a stand-alone, non-electric insulated bag designed to reduce the amount of fuel required in the cooking of food and can be used instead of paraffin stoves.
DURING national Burns Awareness Month, which runs during the month of May, U matter, a project of the Smile Foundation, will raise funds to provide ‘Wonder Bags’ to areas of need.
Together with three burns units – at Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital – the initiative will identify areas that are most affected by burns injuries to distribute the Wonder Bags.
Specialist plastic surgeon, head of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital, Burns Unit, Dr Maria Giaquinto-Cilliers, said that national Burns Awareness Week was started in Kimberley in 2013.
A Wonder Bag is a stand-alone, non-electric insulated bag designed to reduce the amount of fuel required in the cooking of food and can be used instead of paraffin stoves.
U matter’s programme manager, Heléna Cullis, said: “We will identify areas that are most affected by burns injuries to distribute the Wonder Bags. Many of these areas are informal settlements that do not have electricity. In winter they utilise coal and paraffin to cook and stay warm. Furthermore there is no infrastructure for electricity.
“In South Africa, 256 children suffer burns every day. Many of these areas are informal settlements that do not have electricity. During winter, coal and paraffin is used to cook and stay warm, especially in areas that do not have infrastructure and electricity.”
U matter will also hold a virtual challenge to walk or climb Mount Kilimanjaro from May 9-20 as an awareness campaign for burn injuries and to raise funds for this initiative.
