Mokgaetji wants to make a difference in the lives of disabled people

POLOKWANE – Mokgaetji Hlaka is the founder of Great Hearts Disability Centre in Kwena Moloto in Seshego and has come up with the idea to start a disability centre to take care of disabled people around Seshego and Polokwane.

Great Hearts Disability Centre cares for children who are diagnosed with cerebral palsy, autism, spectrum sisorder, epilepsy, down syndrome, spina bifida as well as other disabilities.

Great Hearts Disability Centre was established last year to offer an early intervention programme to children with disability or delays and to promote and/or undertake activities that will improve or remove those physical, legal and psychosocial barriers, which hinder the integration of persons with physical disabilities, into the community through individual objectives determined for each child.

You might also want to read: Kwelano Bohloko says donations go a long way in upkeep of centre

Hlaka wishes to encourage and motivate other people, especially from rural areas, to look after disabled people.

She said Great Hearts Disability Centre can cater for up to 20 disabled people.

She said she wants to equip every community health forum with the international-compared standard of disassembled care.

“We want to improve every child’s functional prognosis and enhance their potential to become a functional adult, able to contribute to society in a meaningful way. We want to enhance our quality by having unlimited conduct sessions via workshop training, and to build a spiritually strong community to have a cultural mission and vision. We believe that disabled people are important and that, without them, the world would be a mess. We strongly stand against the abuse of disabled people,” said Hlaka.

She said the centre caters to disabled children between the ages of 0-18 years old. “We also have reliable transport to transport the children from home to the centre and children will get a meal a day and snacks, and for those who have special diets, we humbly request the parents to provide them with food. We promise to love these children as our own,” she said.

Great Hearts Disability Centre co-founder, Alina Mashangoane said the centre also registers all types of disabilities.

“At Great Hearts Disability Centre we feel like those children need to be shown love also. We saw that there is a need to give them a place so that they will feel like normal people.

“We will have a physiotherapist who will come to the centre to help us with stimulation.

“We also want to fill that gap of the parents who don’t have a lot of time, because most of them spend a lot of time at work. Most families whose children are living with disabilities struggle to provide for day-to-day needs and in turn, it becomes difficult to get medical equipment for the kids. In every society, children with special needs have social needs like those of children without disabilities.

“They need to be loved and respected. They need to play and explore their world with other children and adults,” said Moshangoane.