This year, Hugo Tempelman’s Ndlovu Care Group is focusing on the integration of disabled children. The team has long been concerned that mentally and physically disabled children are not only not integrated into society, they often do not even receive adequate medical care, and the vulnerability of these children is even greater. Studies show that poverty in an area, lack of access to nutritious food, exposure to environmental factors and pathogens as well as social and other risks influence the incidence of disabilities. Inadequate housing is particularly detrimental to children with disabilities. Unfortunately, the prevailing view among affected families is still that locking these children away in the home is the best way to protect them. Alarmingly, evidence of abuse is becoming more common. The type of abuse experienced by disabled children is often related to the nature of their disabilities: mentally and physically disabled children are more likely to be sexually abused, while children with learning disabilities suffer particularly from neglect.
There is little evidence of access to early childhood education for pre-school children with disabilities across the country. In 2009, an informal, community-based study conducted in five schools for the deaf in the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu Natal provinces found that deaf children did not know about HIV and AIDS, sex education, rape, abortion, abuse and harassment. In cases where they received life skills education, deaf children did not always understand the teachers correctly, as their explanations were often not given in South African sign language or no deaf teachers were involved in the training. A large number of young people with disabilities do not go to school and therefore cannot benefit from HIV and child protection-oriented programs in schools.
Since the end of last year, the Ndlovu Care Group has been making enormous efforts to take care of these children and create a caring, child-friendly environment for them and, above all, to provide them with an education and support suitable for their disabilities.
During our visit in October, we could already see the first cornerstones in the truest sense of the word. The construction of the Joris Haus – a day care center for the care and support of disabled children – began here.
