July 2021

July 2021: Feedback from our branches

• WCAPD
• 06/08/2021

          Breede Valley APD – where ‘Toys Are Us

 

Your support goes hand in hand with a creative initiative that is changing things for some youngsters in resource-poor communities.

 

This #DoMorePlay Toy Programme not only supports education, but empowers youth and promotes upcycling.

 

Children learn best through play. But toys are short in most Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres in South Africa.  But now, a special group of 20 young people with intellectual disabilities have been trained to create high-quality, durable and affordable wooded toys for ECD centers using donated timber pallet off-cuts.

 

 

Toys have been selected by an ECD expert to develop cognitive skills, and include kits carrying items such as geometric blocks, a stacking pyramid, shapes on a rope, and threading/lacing apparatus.  The cost of each kit is R1250, for anyone wanting to sponsor one for an ECD centre.

 

 

More about ‘Toys Are Us’ under the umbrella of YouthAbility, a project of Breede Valley APD

It’s always wonderful, and is our continued objective, to distance ‘dis’ from ‘ability’.

 

After partnering with the Do More Foundation pre-September 2020, our existing Arts and Crafts project providing life and skills training for youth with intellectual and physical disabilities took on a brand new name: YouthAbility!

 

 

Andri Eloff, #MoreThan woodwork facilitator, procured the necessary tools and equipment; existing arts and crafts facilitators attended a two-day disability sensitization workshop; and the potential of youth with disabilities was conducted; and skills were transferred.

 

To see the youth’s growth in confidence and pride has been a privilege. And from a small woodwork project, YouthAbility has easily gone to a well oiled production driven venture with the first order of 12 toy boxes ready for despatch on 7 May.

 

 

 

All attention is now focused on the marketing, selling, and distribution of wooden ECD toys and toy boxes, ensuring the sustainability of this exciting project

 

 

Laingsburg APD – where Karoo windmills sing in the wind

 

This branch of APD opened their social work services offices on 1 June 2021. Several introductions in the community have made their presence known so that partnerships can quickly be established.  And already, excellent work in the community is being done.

 

One exciting early achievement is a handwork project called Karoo Inspired Crafts, where persons with disabilities are trained in a delicate technique to draw windmill designs on different crockery items such as mugs, tea sets, breakfast bowls, etc, which are set by baking in a kiln. The motif of the windmill has been chosen because it’s symbolic of the Karoo, and each one is unique.

 

 

These items make wonderful gifts, and we hope that the project will get the support that it deserves.

 

 

 

George APD – where You walked with us

 

Identifying persons with disabilities is the first step to being able to offer help through our services.

 

In May this year, as an APD supporter, you walked with our Community Development Workers and three of our peer supporters through the community of Kleinkrantz which has a devastating level of poverty.

Spreading awareness (where there was previously none) about APD door to door, and meeting face to face with persons with disabilities was a day well spent.

 

There’s much work to be done in this community – and we sincerely hope that we’ll have your continued support in making special differences in Kleinkrantz.  Thank you.

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