SABC News in Johannesburg and its offices in all the provinces are
devoting the bulk of its collective time to the disabled in the run-up
to Mandela Day on Monday, 18 July.
Mandela
Day is a call to action for people everywhere to take responsibility
for making the world a better place, one small step at a time, just as
Mandela did. On the day, people are called to devote just 67 minutes of
their time to changing the world for the better, in a small gesture of
solidarity with humanity.
In
the Western Cape the SABC’s radio and TV teams will help with painting
and maintenance work and will hand over a dormitory to The Thembalethu
School for the Disabled in Gugulethu on July 18. It is a special school
which cares for and educates disabled children.
In
Motherwell in the Eastern Cape the APD Day-Care Centre for disabled
children between the ages of one and seven will be supported by the
SABC News team in Port Elizabeth. On Friday July 15 they will run a
soup kitchen for the children, their parents and the centre’s staff.
The
Bophelong Special School
for mentally-disabled children at the Majemantsho village in Mahikeng
has also been identified by the SABC as a place that needs assistance.
The
institution has been in operation for 16 years and will be relocating to
its new premises on July 18, 2011. The school has 207 learners with 14
educators.
SABC News will be helping the school on July 18 with cleaning and helping to prepare the new school premises.The team will also collect
clothes for the children and spend time playing with them.
SABC News staff members in Johannesburg are going to volunteer for at least an hour on
Saturday, July 16 at the Netcare
Rehabilitation Hospital. This well-resourced
and specialised private healthcare facility rehabilitates adults and children
across the spectrum with physical disabilities.
In Mpumalanga, a Good
Hope Home based Care Centre in Mattaffin will be helped. They look after at least 200 children
of ranging from the orphaned, vulnerable, neglected and the disabled. Age groups
vary from newborns to teenagers. SABC in the province will help with washing, cooking, cleaning and painting on July 15. The team will also donate clothes and blankets.
Money
is not the only thing that can help others – love and time are great
gifts that all of us can share with those who really need it. Let’s all
join together and help those less fortunate than us.
Friday 8 July 2011 12:18
“A democracy is an order of social equality and non-discrimination. Our compatriots who are disabled challenge us in a very special way to manifest in real life those values of democracy” – Mandela, Conference for the Disabled, 4 April, 2004
Overview of disabled
The World Health Organisation estimates that there are 650 million disabled people in the world. This amounts to about 10% of the world’s 6.8 billion population. Eighty per cent of disabled people live in developing countries and 20% of the world’s poorest people are disabled.
According to South Africa’s last census in 2001, over 2.3 million people in South Africa had various forms of disability – amounting to 5% of South Africa’s estimated 50 million population.
The 2007 Community Survey found that the majority of people in South Africa receiving disability grants were in the 0-14 and 65+ age groups
Statistics South Africa defines disability as “a physical or mental handicap”, lasting for at least six months and which prevents a person from carrying out daily activities independently or from participating fully in educational, economic or social activities.
The right to equality and non-discrimination of people living with disabilities in South Africa are protected in the country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights, which former president Nelson Mandela signed on 10 December 1996. In terms of the Constitution, disabled people are also entitled to human dignity and the advancement of human rights and freedoms
South Africa ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in November 2007.
In 1995, government adopted the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service. It reiterated government’s commitment to employ at least two per cent of disabled people by 2005. But according to Nedlac, only 0.2% of the public service include disabled people by December 2005. Between 2009 and 2010, the public service employed only 2 838 disabled people
Some quotes by Nelson mandela on the disabled:
“The new South Africa we are building should be accessible and open to everyone. Disabled children are equally entitled to an exciting and brilliant future. We must see to it that we remove the obstacles.poor access to facilities; poor education; lack of transport; lack of funding or unavailability of equipment.Only then will the rights of the disabled to equal opportunities become a reality.” – First Annual South African Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp, Johannesburg, 4 December 1995
“.I always wear hearing aids…These little instruments made a big difference to my life. Wherever I go, they help me to listen better, to understand better.” – Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Hearing Aid Project, Soweto, 23 May 1997
“Human beings regard their mental capacity as the most defining feature of themselves as a species. To respond in a caring manner to the impairment of those capacities in others is to really know ourselves as human beings and to live out our humanness.” – Fund-raising event for the Takalani Home for the Mentally Disabled, Sparrow Schools and Living Link, September 2002
(Sources: The Constitution of South Africa; Community Survey 2007); United Nations; Disability Framework for Local Government 2009- 2014; 19 August 2010 – Parliamentary Reply Mrs JM Maluleke to the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities; Public Service Commission Reports (2008 & 2009); Nelson Mandela by Himself – The Authorised Book of Quotations (2011)
