Organisation for the disabled closes its doors
There is still no hope of operating again for the children with disability organisation
An organisation for disabled children in Duduza was forced to close down in January this year.
Like all other organisations and companies, Skhalo Sama-Africa, an organisation for children with disabilities, also closed its doors during the December holidays.
When other organisations opened again in January, the story was different for the organisation following their rejection by the pastor of the church that they used as their centre to look after physically disabled children.
According to one of the founders of the organisation, Buti Shabalala, the pastor demanded a monthly rent of R1 000 from the organisation and told them that if they could not afford the rent, then they were no longer welcome to use his church.
“The pastor gave us two options, to pay the rent or pack our things and leave the premises,” said a sad Shabalala.
He said, because the organisation could not afford to pay the rent, then they had no choice but to forget about helping the disabled children despite the organisation’s existence of three years.
Shabalala explained that his organisation was helping disabled children between 0 and 18 years old through teaching them how to read and write and also trained the children on art and sport skills.
“Because some of them were from poor families that could not afford to take them to the special schools for the physically disabled, we made it our responsibility to ensure that these children also gain the skills that will help them shape a better future,” Shabalala said. Molala Matome, the organisation’s chairman, confirmed that it has been six months since things turned sour for the organisation.
“The sad part is that, not only the parents suffer in this situation, but the children are the most affected,” Matome said, adding that some of the children have already lost the hope of having a better tomorrow like other children of their age who live without disabilities.
“Some of them have turned to be drug addicts because they cannot attend school while also feeling rejected by the community,” said Matome.
He said it is their dream to have their own place where they will take care of disabled children when their parents are at work and help remove a burden from the helpless senior citizens who take care of their disabled grandchildren.
