Wheelchairs for disabled Alex residents
ALEXANDRA – Alexandra’s disabled had much to cheer after Good Samaritans helped improve the mobility of their colleagues.
This was at NPO Women for Peace Centre on 8th Avenue where five beneficiaries received wheelchairs donated by First Rand Bank’s First Corporate Centre and NPO Sweetheart Foundation. The donors support one of the centre’s recycling projects.
Guest at the handover, Herold Manciya of Alex Disability Centre, said the donation brought hope to the disabled movement. “Disabled people struggle with challenges other people take for granted – like walking to school. They can’t access most basic needs, navigate in and out of their small, cramped shacks and small doors and narrow passageways and into public service centres and flats,” Manciya said.
He added that most places have no ramps, their escalators don’t work and, street kerbs are difficult for the disabled. “The donation is a wheel forward and the five will no longer be left locked indoors. It will be a relief to their families who will have more time for other daily activities.”
Patience Phasha of Women for Peace Centre said the wheelchairs will bring psychological relief as well as self-reliance to the disabled. “They are like a ray of sunshine heralding a new beginning for the beneficiaries, their families and for the disabled movement as more of their members will get independent and be able to look for jobs. Government alone can’t help them all,” she added.
Jenitha John of the Sweetheart Foundation said the donation was an expression of ubuntu and volunteerism as universal principles of caring and changing the negative circumstances of others. “We all need to say no to the negative challenges of others by improving their conditions. The donation will enable them to live life to the fullest and affirm another of Nelson Mandela’s philosophies that life is not the mere fact that we have lived it, but it is what difference we have made to the lives of others,” she stressed.
The bank’s Ancois Muller said the donation was a natural human gesture of sharing and caring for other’s needs and would go a long way in making their lives easier. She added that it was an altruistic gesture that also resulted in blessings being bestowed on the dedicated volunteers. Muller challenged other corporates to do the same.
