Mowat Park family seeks to enable the disabled

MOWAT Park High School (MPHS) has embarked on a worthy project to modify its school to accommodate visitors with disabilities.
The proactive initiative comes after MPHS received a visit from a member from the office of the presidency who upon being assisted out of her car into her wheelchair was not able to access the school beyond the foyer entrance due to its lack of a ramp or disability facilities. “Am I not welcome at this school?” she asked. These are the words that have since been etched into the minds of the school’s staff from five years ago.
This year a group of Grade 10 learners, who form part of the Youth Citizens Action Programme (Y-cap) have put a project into motion titled Dis-ability Isn’t In-ability. Y-cap is an initiative that motivates learners to be active citizens and learn social entrepreneurship skills through this practical, action and values-based programme for primary and secondary schools nationally.

The learners have to pick out an issue in their school and raise awareness about it. “As MPHS Y-cap learners we have decided to raise awareness about people who are physically disabled through poetry and drama events, green awareness ribbons as well as cake sales among strategies, while also raising funds to help build a ramp at our school,” said Grade 10 learner, Agnes Chikanya. According to research carried out by the school’s representative council of learners (RCL), there are at least 34 parents and/ or guardians who cannot attend school events due to the school’s environment not accommodating their physical disabilities.
The building of the ramp from the entrance of the school to the hall is estimated at about R22 000 which they have to raise. “We want everyone who comes to our school, whether it is for meetings, poetry nights or prize giving events, to be able to have access that is not restricted because of their physical abilities. There is a top performing learner at our school who always receives awards, but her grandmother is not able to attend prize giving events because she is physically challenged and the school cannot accommodate her,” expressed Agnes and Caitlyn Noah on behalf of the group.
The group competed at district level on Friday, 12 July, and proceeded to the provincial level against 16 districts on Saturday, 19 July, and were placed third in KZN. “We were the KZN winners in 2012 and won third position in South Africa back then with a project titled ‘Gender based violence: sisters reclaiming ubuntu’.

“We are working tirelessly to take the title again with this amazing project as we aim to make our school entrance area a wheelchair friendly environment as well as convert a toilet and create a special car parking bay for wheelchair users,” said Kesavan Kisten, MPHS deputy principal, who is assisting the girls in making this vision a reality.
The group has already had meetings with various stakeholders and are looking for possible sponsors to assist with of materials and labour for the ramp or gifts to raffle to raise funds towards the project.
To sponsor this project contact Kesavan Kisten on 031-469-0425.

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