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Public support networks and disability resources<h2 class="sectHeading">​​​​​​​​​​​Public organisations and City of Cape Town partnerships​​​​​</h2><p>​​We partner with registered non-governmental organisations to provide opportunities for people with disabilities.</p><p> <b>Disability Workshop Development Enterprise (DWDE) </b><br> DWDE is one of the leading disability employment support services in Cape Town. It addresses learning and employment opportunities, and creates job solutions for South Africans with disabilities.</p><p> <b>Cape Mental Health </b><br> The oldest mental health community-based organisation in South Africa, Cape Mental Health has been active for more than 100 years ensuring that people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities are included in community life and have access to education, training, work and social opportunities. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://www.capementalhealth.co.za/" target="_blank">www.capementalhealth.co.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a> </p><p> <b>Comcare Trust</b><br> Comcare provides affordable, stable accommodation for adults with chronic psychiatric disabilities. With several homes in the province, Comcare hopes to enable people with major psychiatric disabilities to become part of their wider community and feel comfortable and secure in a home where they are supported and valued. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://comcare.co.za/" target="_blank">comcare.co.za</a><i class="icon link-external"></i>    </p><p> <b>Cape Town Association for the Physically Disabled </b><br> This association supports the interests and needs of people with disabilities in the Cape Peninsula. They also promote and provide social development services to help improve the quality of life of people with locomotor disabilities. <br>Visit their website: <a href="http://www.givengain.com/" target="_blank">www.givengain.com<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Cape Town Society for the Blind</b><br> This organisation offers specialised skills development and work opportunities for the blind and those with visual impairments. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://capetownsocietyfortheblind.co.za/" target="_blank">capetownsocietyfortheblind.co.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Epilepsy South Africa </b><br> Dedicated to working with people with epilepsy and their families, Epilepsy SA offers support, training and up to date information, helping those affected by epilepsy lead meaningful lives. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://epilepsy.org.za/" target="_blank">epilepsy.org.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Ikhayaelite </b><br> Ikhayaelite is a craft and design project in Khayelitsha. The project trains women and men with physical disabilities, helping to develop job skills and find employment. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://ikhayaelite.co.za/" target="_blank">www.ikhayaelite.co.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a> </p><p> <b>Laphumlanga Empilisweni Care Centre </b><br> Run by ‘Mama Letitia’, this crèche, arts and crafts centre, library, soup kitchen, orphanage and veggie garden in Mfuleni caters for everyone – with or without disabilities. <br>Contact Letitia Xongwana: <em> <a>071 780 9170</a></em></p><p> <b>Oasis Association </b> <br> Oasis provides employment opportunities, skills development training, day-care centres and residential homes for more than 450 men, women and children with intellectual disabilities in the greater Cape Town area. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://www.oasis.org.za/" target="_blank">www.oasis.org.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>South African Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind</b><br> The South African Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind is the oldest organisation that offers people with visual disabilities a range of orientation and mobility services. Historically, they have been responsible for the breeding and supply of top guide dogs to the blind and partially sighted in South Africa. They are also actively involved in consultancy, education and training on sight issues, mobility and the use of guide dogs as mobility aids. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://www.guidedog.org.za/" target="_blank">www.guidedog.org.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Unmute Company</b><br> Unmute Company is a dance company run by dancer Andile Vellum, who has a hearing disability. Using a range of techniques, including sign language, Andile teaches fellow dancers to explore their feelings as members of society, and to challenge what society expects of dance. <br>Contact Mpotseng Shuping: <em> <a>079 624 0108</a></em> or <em> <a href="mailto:mphotsengshuping@gmail.com">mphotsengshuping@gmail.com</a></em> </p><p> <b>The Shonaquip Social Enterprise</b><br>The Shonaquip Social Enterprise is an award winning social enterprise and Southern Africa’s leading paediatric wheelchair service provider. They are committed to improving the quality of life of people living with mobility and other disabilities, and provide holistic capacity building programmes and services for children with mobility and other disabilities, and their families.<br>Visit their website: <a href="https://shonaquipse.org.za/" target="_blank">www.shonaquipse.org.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a><br>Contact: <a>021 797 8239</a><br></p><p> <b>Western Cape Association for Persons with Disabilities (WCAPD)</b><br> WCAPD is a group of volunteers and staff who work together with people with disabilities to help them become as independent as possible, and to be active and positive members of society. Its social services look at all areas of a disabled person’s life and draw on related services for childcare, education, employment, skills development, occupational therapy, assistive devices, awareness, accessibility and training. WCAPD services are free of charge and open to anyone who needs support. <br>Visit their website: <a href="https://www.wcapd.org.za/" target="_blank">www.wcapd.org.za<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Women’s Achievement Network for Disability (WAND)</b><br> WAND links women and young girls with disabilities to helpful resources so they can become aware of their human rights. It also makes people more aware of the challenges and successes of women and young girls with disabilities.</p><h2 class="sectHeading">​​​​​​​​United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</h2><p>​​The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol is the first comprehensive and fastest negotiated human rights treaty of the 21st century. The Convention follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing people with disabilities as "objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing people with all types of disabilities as able and allowed to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.</p><p>Read the <a href="https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf" target="_blank">full convention here​<i class="icon link-external"></i></a>.</p><h2 class="sectHeading">Events​​​​​​​ </h2><p> <b>Mandela Day – 18 July</b><br> A programme for seniors, women and people with disabilities is developed every year and presented in partnership with relevant service providers.</p><p> <b>Cape Town International Kite Festival – 31 October and 1 November</b><br> This is the largest kite event in South Africa, organised every year by Cape Mental Health (CMH). All profits go towards CMH to help improve the lives of adults and children with mental disabilities. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CTKiteFest" target="_blank">Visit their Facebook page​.<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>International Day for Persons with Disabilities – 3 December</b><br> The City of Cape Town hosts a big annual event to celebrate International Day for Persons with Disabilities, which has a different theme each year. Festivities are hosted in partnership with government departments, the Western Cape Network on Disability and non-governmental organisations in the disability sector.</p><h2 class="sectHeading">​​​​​​​​Interesting reads​​​​​​​</h2><p>Here is a list of interesting articles and books written by or about South Africans to help you understand the world of disability better.</p><p> <b>Famous South African academic Jonathan Jansen has written about his experience being disabled for a day at the University of the Free State, and what it taught him and others around him. </b> </p><p> <u>An excerpt:</u> “My challenge therefore to schools, universities and businesses is this — in order to develop a deep and abiding respect for, and responsiveness to, clients or staff or students with disabilities, arrange such a day in your organisation. Hire wheelchairs from a local care centre; blindfold your managers for a day; and put earplugs in the ears of your supervisor. And then talk about your experiences afterwards. The problem is that few corporate or educational or religious leaders will agree to this. We are too busy doing other pressing things. We are not as open to learning as we like to imagine. And, quite frankly, unless you have a child or parent with a disability, it always seems like somebody else’s problem.</p><p>As I emerged from the debriefing it struck me that our schools would be designed more creatively, our teaching delivered more sensitively, our businesses conducted more empathetically, and our lives lived more generously — if only we learned to respect those with disabilities.”</p><p> <b>Internationally award-winning activist and Capetonian Chaeli Mycroft is the first female quadriplegic to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. </b><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/first-female-quadriplegic-to-conquer-kilimanjaro-1.1910383#.VelzTYU5tr0" target="_blank">Read about the news story here.<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <b>Artist, campaigner and academic Victor McKinney was 19 when he became paralysed. He is married to Emma, who is deaf, and they live in Cape Town. </b><a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/at-19-a-freak-accident-left-victor-in-a-wheelchair-and-his-dad-dead-so-how-did-he-rebuild-his-life-and-find-happiness-28551433.html" target="_blank">Read about it here.<i class="icon link-external"></i></a></p><p> <u>Excerpt:</u> “I don’t think society takes disability seriously at all and certainly does not understand the magnitude of it. People with disabilities are viewed as sexless and unable to work, so on a fundamental level are not viewed as being important enough to include — and the status quo reinforces this.”</p><p> <b>Read Cape Society for the Blind communications manager Michelle Botha’s private blog </b><a href="https://learningblindness.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">here<i class="icon link-external"></i></a>.​​</p><p> <b>Five reasons why we police disabled people’s language (and why we need to stop). </b><a href="https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/policing-disabled-peoples-identity/" target="_blank">Find the article here<i class="icon link-external"></i>​</a>.</p>GP0|#d396a73d-d02d-4b73-a872-0fd6022bbffb;L0|#0d396a73d-d02d-4b73-a872-0fd6022bbffb|Public support networks and disability resources;GTSet|#ef3a64a2-d764-44bc-9d69-3a63d3fadea1;GPP|#cd99ac49-ecca-405e-bdcd-46b95dde8120;GPP|#063a6668-d6cb-4c45-adaf-f559697b85fd;GPP|#245ec7aa-a528-4cd3-bcac-597c292db711The City partners with many NGOs to provide support and opportunities for people with disabilities.0

 

 

 

 

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