What about disabled children in South Africa? This question, which our ambassador Clemens Schick asks during his visit, is not unjustified. Liesje explains that disabled children are often hidden away in the community. It is seen as a curse, a punishment for evil deeds, to give birth to a disabled child. This is the reason why disabled children and their families are often ostracized and socially excluded.
This year, the Ndlovu Care Group has set itself the goal of counteracting this. Several day care centers are to be opened that are entirely dedicated to these people. These are not intended to be care homes, but rather children and parents are to be educated here. They will be shown how to deal with the respective disability and how the children can be supported. It is a day program. The children are not taken away from their families. Three days a week the program is in the house, three days the staff go to the families’ homes, look at the living situations on site and provide practical, individual assistance on how to cope with everyday life in a more disability-friendly way. The first facility, the Jorishaus, has already opened and is a huge success! On the first day, 27 families with disabled children came.
The Jorishaus was originally planned as a women’s shelter, but the social welfare office did not use the facilities. After standing empty for a long time, it has now been converted into the first center for the disabled in the area. The decision was a long one, as it opened up a whole new area of expertise and treatment at Ndlovu. The focus was on ensuring that the young patients receive qualified staff support. It is not only the medical staff who need to be appropriately trained, but also the social workers who support the families. Even the carpenter was appropriately trained for his work and made exercise equipment suitable for the disabled for the house. The support is based on the Conductive Education System. Generalists are trained in the overarching areas of physiotherapy, orthopaedics, speech therapy and childcare. A training school is to be created in the future.
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