After the recent review our organisational vision and mission, we realised the need to align our service delivery with the White Paper on the rights of Persons with Disabilities and in the process enable a disabling society. It is imperative that disability specific educational and/or training programmes are used as a means to -advocate and lobby for the rights of persons with disabilities and to influence legislation and policies so as to ensure that these rights are protected; -to promote and support measures that will prevent or reduce the occurrence of disabling conditions and their effects; -to promote activities that will improve the access of the physical and social environment and thereby integration of persons with disabilities into the community and -to educate and raise awareness amongst the general public regarding disability.
At Breede Valley APD we are aiming to facilitate inclusion and equal opportunities to all vulnerable people in the Breede Valley, to provide opportunity to again believe in their own abilities, giftedness and actively contribute to their community. We would like to provide a safe space for all members of society in the Breede Valley to engage in activities and engagements that will promote inclusion, wellness and equity and enhance the social wellness- and cohesion of the community.
INCLUSIVE WELLNESS @ APD
We believe that through the InclusiveWellness@APD project, we will be able to provide all members of society in Worcester the opportunity to engage in weekly activities focused on spiritual-, mental-,physical-, social-, and creative wellness and creating an interactive platform for engagement and/or important conversations with persons with disabilities. Through these actions we will strive to meet our beneficiaries’ need for inclusion, access and equality and contribute to building a society characterized by equality, fairness, dignity and justice, in which various stakeholders and partners meet their social obligations and inequality is incrementally addressed.
MORETHAN TOUWS RIVER
Touws River, known as the passage between the Boland and the Karoo, is a small railway town of 6 800 people (Census2001) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. After Spoornet withdrew from Touws River, banks and businesses followed suit. The community of Touws River has ever since been struggling to revive its economy with very limited resources, resulting in a high prevalence of unemployment, poverty, gangsterism and substance abuse. These social issues have been followed by high incidences of child neglect, children born with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, intellectual disability and other neonatal related syndromes recorded in the area. The outbreak and spread of the Corona Virus in South Africa and accompanying declaration of a State of Disaster in March 2020, caused additional pressure and stressors on an already socially- and economically crippled community.
Through the Partners for Life Caregiver Support programme, the Caring & Sharing Special Care Centre and the CommKidz Project, Breede Valley APD realised that it had to find creative ways in which to render developmental social services that are relevant to the personal needs experienced by children and families with disabilities in Touws River. Experiencing a general sense of despair in what is known as a very isolated community, we realised that it is important that the community of Touws River’s dignity and identity be restored, providing them with the opportunity to dream again and create a better future for themselves.
Through the MoreThan#MeerAs project, we would like the Touws River Community to realise that each and every one of them are able to become the unique person that they were meant to be. Within the seed of a yellowwood tree, is the yellowwood tree. With good nutrients, enough water and sunlight – a safe caring space – the yellowwood tree will become what it is supposed to be: A yellowwood tree. Every human being is unique and has the life purpose to become who he/she is meant to be. ”I may live in poverty, but I am not poverty” (Ndlovu Youth Choir).
