UJ’s Disability Unit gets two new wheelchairs for students through the Tops and Tags initiative.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ), Disability Unit (DU) has been awarded two wheelchairs from the Sweethearts Foundation. Team leader at the PsyCaD DU Leila Abdool Gafoor expressed, “The DU joined this project as we saw the need for the students that we support on an ongoing basis. The aim was not only receiving manual wheelchairs, but wheelchairs, which we can loan, or give to the students on a need-by-need basis.” The DU first participated in the project in 2018, with the aim of collecting additional wheelchairs for UJ’s physically disabled students.
The UJ community contributed to the project, collecting 900kg of bottle tops in the last year that subsequently culminated in two, brand new wheelchairs. The Sweethearts Foundation is a 100 per cent volunteer-based non-profit organisation through the community Tops and Tags project. The Tops and Tags project, with the help of local volunteers, sees significant amounts of bread tags and plastic bottle tops collected and then recycled by local recycling companies.
UJ’s Disability Unit operates under the Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development at the University of Johannesburg. It serves as the central point where students with disabilities can register to ensure that they are equitably supported and accommodated while completing their tertiary education. UJ once again expressed their commitment to providing all students equal and inclusive access to tertiary education. This includes supporting students who have physical disabilities and make use of a wheelchair to get around campus. Gafoor thanked the UJ community for their continued support in this ongoing project. She said, “This has helped our students to fully access the university from a social perspective, in that they easily get to every place in the university, as well as from an academic perspective, by making it easier to access their lectures, tutorials, practical’s and so on.”
If there are members of the public looking to get involved in the UJ’s Disability Unit, please contact Leila Abdool Gafoor via email, leilaag@uj.ac.za
