Disabled child at centre of family ‘dis’unity
ALEXANDRA – Disabled child's woes may help to reunite family.
A recent exposé by this paper of the struggles of a mother with a disabled child and a birthday celebration held for her by wel-wishers may be what the family needed to help them reunite.
The exposé in Raising support of Alex News of week ending 1 April and Alex mother asks for help of week ending 18 March was about bedridden 18-year-old Ephinia Rabekani of Extension 7.
Hosted at Phuthaditjaba Community Centre by philanthropist Linda Twala and supported by residents, churches and businesses, the celebration was a rare moment when Ephinia left the confines of her bed. Her mother Peggy Rabekani abandoned work and her ambition to be a social worker to care for Ephinia round the clock. The family relies on the R1 300 disability grant for her upkeep. Rabekani said with the exception of a few, most relatives shunned and neglected her for unexplained reasons she thought were associated with their loathing of the child’s condition.
Click here to read: Content Alex mother of disabled child needs helping hand
The well-wishers showered Ephinia and family with presents, blessings and commitment from churches to help improve their living condition and, to seek government’s intervention with care centre facility for Rabekani to also apply her love and caring skills to other disabled children.
Rabekani’s sister Sesi Mahlangu said the publicity revealed a painful family challenge the family members weren’t aware of and would like to correct. this in the interest of ending the estrangement.
” It could have resulted from both parties ignoring important aspects of communication to sustain family unity. It will require a family meeting to resolve the challenge,” Mahlangu said. She claimed Rabekani may have unintentionally drifted away from the family after her husband’s death in 2007, presumably to mourn alone and afterwards tried to cope with the child’s condition alone resulting in huge stress and challenges she wasn’t able to communicate to and seek help from the family.
“We want to now reconnect, help with the welfare of the child who is a gift and could be a message to us from God.” She said Rabekani’s exposure of her circumstances was a bold step which other families with similar problems could emulate to improve their communication in order to bond better for the sake of unity.
Also read: Public, churches and businesses open their hearts to disabled child
Nonchalant, Rabekani was less circumspect to the gesture. She wondered what had prohibited the relatives from coming to her aid for so long and after she has bonded with an extended family of the community at large. She thanked family members who remained by her side during hard times, reserved her right to chart her own way forward and was non-committal to what to expect from the rest of the family.
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