Looking at disability positively

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

The organisation, known as Kopano Rehabilitation, is yet to be registered with the Registrar of Companies and comprises volunteer care-givers of people with disabilities who share their experiences and act as role models to those who have still not accepted their conditions.

For instance the rehabilitation's secretary, Leoky Bogatsu, who has a daughter with a disability motivates others by sharing her experiences about raising the nine year-old girl.

Through her talks she has revealed how she kept her daughter's condition hidden out of a misguided sense of shame. 'I have accepted my daughter as the best that God could give me and it gives me assurance that God trusted my ability to look after a person with such a condition,' says Bogatsu.

Kopano Rehabilitation has already made a mark in the mining town despite operating under certain challenges such as shortage of funds and lack of office space. Currently the committee uses a passenger hall as their meeting place despite the stench from public toilets and contribute towards the food baskets for the organisation's members. Sometimes the committee members go as far as sourcing food from their homes to share with other members.

Bogatsu said their aim is to cater for the improvement of lives of people with disabilities, ranging from mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, deaf, visual impairment, speech and language difficulties, learning difficulty, behavior disorders, pervasive developmental disorders as well as albinoism.

'We are aiming at the full integration of people with disabilities into the society. We also seek to empower and impart the disabled with hands-on skills also by manipulating ways to deploy self employment and self-reliance.'Bogatsu indicates that they also have a support group for caregivers to give them counselling sessions and to disseminate knowledge and information about understanding disability as well as creating awareness about disability within the society and resources allowing, acquiring funds for attaining equipment and aids such as wheelchairs.

Kopano Rehabilitation also aims to work with communities at changing attitudes and supporting people with disabilities as well as working with rehabilitation officials to identify and take children with disability for assessment and therapy.

Bogatsu said they intend to build a rehabilitation center in Selebi-Phikwe to offer protection to people with disabilities. 'We want to discard the myth that disability is a curse or a blot in our social status by implementing initiatives such as having a garden as a means of rehabilitation which will be solely managed by people with disabilities and volunteers. Volunteers from all over will be drawn to work with people with disabilities to teach them developmental skills such as painting, sculpturing and flower arranging. Those who excel in physical education will be attached to relevant people who will be able to accelerate their ability to much greater heights for instance, paralympics,' says Bogatsu.

Bogatsu said they are concerned that social welfare officials strike caregivers off the food baskets lists and order them to go and look for employment without considering the attention that a person with a disability needs total attention. 'People with disabilities need 100 percent of our attention as caregivers therefore it is not easy to leave them in the lurch to go and look for employment and you cannot hire somebody to look after them because of their special needs.'

So far the organisation has about 60 members with more people expected to join.