Jabulani Rehab residents live in hope
Jabulani Rehab Centre residents in dire need of financial assistance.
LIVING in limbo, not knowing what the future holds, residents at Jabulani Rehabilitation Centre are taking it one day at a time, hoping for a miracle.
In March, the Zululand Observer reported that the centre was being put up for sale because the Association for the Physically Challenged (APC), who run the centre, are in desperate need of funding.
However, there still has been no noticeable help forthcoming to keep it afloat.
D.I.C.E. (Do I Care Enough?), the welfare arm of the Zululand Observer, have visited the centre with donations of food parcels, clothing and blankets, while Richards Bay Engineering donated R4 500 for the purchase of skins for leather work, with another organisation donating R2 000 for residents to buy more materials for their handcrafts.
APC Chairperson Jane Chennells said the centre is in desperate need of financial assistance to keep it going, at least until all its residents are safely accommodated at Dumisane Makhaye Village, outside Ngwelezane.
Centre needs financial help
‘Of the 22 residents who use the workshop facility for their handiworks, 11 have been allocated government RDP houses at Dumisane Makhaye Village, and the remainder have been put on a waiting list of houses in the government’s next phase, and these currently stay at the centre.
‘Those staying at the village constantly require transport to commute from the centre and their homes, which costs a lot of money.
‘Even though the government pays an allowance for each resident attending the workshop, this is not enough to keep it afloat, and our biggest wish is for all of them to get housing at the village, and maybe a new workshop built near their homes.
‘Our main focus is to re-integrate them back into a normal society so they become part and parcel of a bigger community, instead of them being isolated, vulnerable, and far from facilities such as shops and clinics,’ said Jane.
She said APC is a provincial NPO, with branches at Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg and other parts of KZN, and their biggest challenge is lack of funding, which would enable them to cater for the needs of those unable to help themselves.
