Disabled youth uses practical skills to raise funds
The Phuthanang Training Centre for the Disabled (PTCD) offers various skills to learners over the age of 18 in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni. And in this way, they are helping them become productive members of society while keeping them safe during their training.
According to Ellen Mazibuko, her 21-year-old grandson was bullied and humiliated by learners and teachers because of his inability to read and write.
“He kept on failing at school and we thought he just did not want to learn. He was miserable and refused to go to school because other learners mocked him for not being able to read.”
It was only when he was supposed to go to high school that teachers advised Mazibuko to enrol him at a special school. This disappointed her as she thought the school system should have identified the boy’s struggles sooner.
Not suited for mainstream schools
“I did not understand why it had taken them so long to realise that maybe he was not suited for mainstream schools. It was difficult to accept that my grandson will not become a police officer like I had hoped.”
Learning disabilities are often misunderstood, and those who live with them often feel shame. They have low self-esteem and there is a common belief at some township schools that they suffer from mental illness.
“When it was recommended that he enrols at a Thembinkosi Special School, my grandson aggressively said that he was not crazy and would not attend a school for crazy people. We tried another school, but he still struggled until someone suggested Phuthanang,” said Mazibuko.
PTCD founder Matima Serumula saw a need for an organisation that would cater to learners with disabilities who were above the normal schooling age.
Safety net
“After volunteering at Thembinkosi Special School, I realised that young people living with disabilities had nowhere to go once they reached the age of 18 years. My sister was physically disabled so I understood how difficult it was for these learners in the community.”
Serumula was also concerned about the safety of those learners.
“People living with disabilities are often seen as soft targets by criminals so this school provides them with a safety net. Parents go to work knowing that their children are safe with us.”
The school offers knitting, beading, baking, computers, agricultural and arts and crafts skills to those with physical and learning disabilities.
“With these skills, we hope that the community will realise that people living with disabilities are just like everyone else and they are capable of contributing to the community. They just want to be treated like everyone else.”
Mazibuko noticed that her grandson’s attitude towards school had improved when started waking up happy in the mornings. She is however still ashamed to tell her younger grandchildren that their brother goes to a special school because he struggles to read and write. She fears that he might not be treated like a normal person should the community know that he has a disability. – Health-e News.
Author
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
Disabled youth uses practical skills to raise funds
by Marcia Moyana, Health-e News
January 9, 2019