Mpumalanga

About APD Mpumalanga

Breaking Access and Participation Barriers

Mobility ensures that we are part of our community, it’s services and the many opportunities it offers us to socialize, grow and be economically active. Persons with Disabilities in Mpumalanga are of the poorest of the poor due to a continuing lack of access to opportunities like schooling and employment. Mpumalanga APD helps Persons with physical disabilities to access mobility devices such as crutches, canes, wheelchairs and artificial limbs to obtain mobility.

Mpumalanga APD renders services to persons with disabilities from 4 satellite offices located in the rural areas of Mpumalanga. Stats SA estimates the number of people with disabilities in our Province at 205 280. Disability is more prevalent among females (8,3%) compared to males (6,5%). Education, employment and generating an income remains a huge problem for persons with disabilities. More than a third (35,5%) of children with severe difficulty in walking were not attending school at the time of the last Census. Approximately 2230 persons with disabilities benefits from our services (30% under the age of 18).

Greater mobility helps Persons with Disabilities

• to have a sense of control
• to focus on their abilities and not their mobility
• to have more strength and energy to do things on their own.
• to become an active part of their community and the opportunities it offers.

APD Mpumalanga Objectives

Empowering Persons with Disabilities

We believe in the full and equal enjoyment of ALL human People with disabilities are often excluded from basic educa-tion and therefore do not meet the entry requirements of for-mal vocational training programmes, such as literacy skills. This affects their chances of finding decent jobs. Mpumalanga APD builds relationships with parents, people with disabilities, government and non- governmental.

Reducing Compounded Marginalization

How a person experiences disability depends not only on the functional limitations relating to their disability, but also to the environment and the attitudes of people around them.

Harmful attitudes can be

• assumptions about capabilities & dependency which may lead to disempowerment & overprotection.
• negative superstitious beliefs & practices that causes discrimination within the family and community that deny equal access to resources such as opportunities for development.

Environmental barriers include

• issues in the physical environment like inaccessible public buildings, facilities and transport.
• communication – Lack of accessible information in braille, or visual format for people with hearing impairments

A combination of attitudinal and environmental barriers effectively causes people with disabilities to be excluded from many activities that others participate in as a matter of daily living. Mpumalanga APD helps to reduce marginalisation by supporting parents of Children with disabilities, giving information to teachers in mainstream schools and by facilitating access to assistive technology like ipad’s, computers etc. Our focus is to assist persons with disabilities to find ways to function to their fullest potential.
organisation to strengthen the representative voice of people with disabilities. We represent Persons with disabilities on a number of forums and illicit regular feedback from the people we partner with. Where necessary we will help individuals and groups to access their rights as described in the South African Constitution. Nationally, we take part in awareness campaigns like Casual Day and Nappy Run to make the community aware of the needs and issues of Persons with Disabilities.

Equal Rights ARE NOT special rights

Supporting Independent living

Persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to live in their communities. Institutions limit personal growth, development and self-worth. Institutional care is both costly and lacks the ability to offer a high quality of life.

Mpumalanga APD are passionate about Persons with disabilities staying in the community and help to achieve this in four ways.

• Assisting Persons with Disabilities and their parents or caregivers to access services like health care and education and social assistance to cover the high cost of disability.
• Assisting NPO’s in communities to render quality Home Based Care Services to Persons with various Disabilities.

Delivering Excellent Services to Persons with Disabilities

Mpumalanga APD employs the services of qualified Social Workers, and Auxiliary Social Workers in order to ensure the rendering of quality services to Persons with disability in Mpumalanga. The Social Development Staff is deployed to 4 satellite offices in the three districts of Mpumalanga from which we render social work services. Our Satellite offices are in Acornhoek, Nkomazi, Mpuluzi and Kwaggafontein. In each of these areas we have partners that affiliates to us to receive our professional Social Work Services. 50 Affiliated Structures including Protective Workshops, Stimulation Centres and Home Based Care projects with over 2000 persons with disabilities benefit from our services.

We help them with:

• Social work services for persons with disabilities – assisting the person to function optimally in his or her environment
• Psychosocial support and counselling
• Facilitating access to mobility and assistive devices for persons with disability.
• Accessing services and support that persons with disabilities have a right to.
• Skills training and entrepreneurial development of Persons with disabilities
• Training and capacitation of their care staff
• Developing management committees of these centers to become fully functional, independent NPO’s
• Awareness raising on disability issues

OUR SERVICE

Breaking access and participation Barriers

Mobility ensures that we are part of our community, it’s services and the many opportunities it offers us to socialize, grow and be economically active.
Mpumalanga APD finds sponsors and facilitates applications for wheelchairs for kids and adults in our rural service areas.

Reducing compounded marginalization

Mpumalanga APD helps to reduce marginalisation by supporting parents, capacitating teachers and facilitating access to assistive technology.
Empowering persons with disabilities
Mpumalanga APD believes in the fall and equal enjoyment of ALL human rights and fundamental freedoms by ALL persons with disabilities. We speak up and empower persons with disabilities to speak up.

Delivering excellent services

Mpumalanga APD employs the services of qualified Social Workers, & Auxiliary Social Workers in order to ensure the rendering of quality services to Persons with disability in Mpumalanga.

Supporting independent living

• Mpumalanga APD are passionate about Persons with disabilities staying in the community and help to achieve this in four ways.
  Assisting Persons with Disabilities and their parents or caregivers to access services like health care and education and social assistance to cover the high cost of disability.
• Assisting NPO’s in communities to render quality Home Based Care Services to Persons with various Disabilities.
• Assisting Stimulation Centres in different communities to offer qual-ity stimulation and care to disabled kids during the day.
• Assisting Protective Workshops in communities to offer quality social work services, development of skills and entrepreneurial growth to-wards a sustainable income for persons with disabilities.

APD Mpumalanga Events

The Eastern Cape Provincial Council for Persons with Disabilities (APDEC) is a not for profit organization affiliated constitutionally to the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD). APDEC was established in December 2007 and registered with the Department Social Development as an NPO on 11th August 2008. APDEC’s area of operation stretches over 168 000 square kilometers and is divided into seven districts and two metropoles. We are currently represented in Amathole, Buffalo City, Saartjie Baartman, Nelson Mandela Bay (including Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch) and Mthatha districts, but still need to establish a footprint in the Chris Hani, OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Ukhahlamba districts. According to the 2011 census, there are approximately 478 000 persons with disabilities living in the Eastern Cape.

APD Mpumalanga Contacts