Give Income Generation to Youth with Disabilities

Our team has been busy conducting interviews with the youth, their parents and the caregivers at the 2 Care Day Center in Vredenburg, Western Cape in order to design a new Ndiongona Stimulation Kit for this older population. At the center, there are 18 youth and three full time care givers.

The kit is being developed by an occupational therapist with input by speech therapist students from the University of Stellenbosch. It will include vocational and life skills activities and lessons.

One of the questions to the youth was: "What would you like to learn to do by yourself?" Youth's responses included: 

• Work in kitchen for extra money
• Car washing for extra money
• How to talk to girls 
• How to cycle

The development team has identified the following concepts and activities that are important to this group and that will be incorporated into the program:

• Developing a sense of self
• Emotional development 
• Developing a sense of belonging
• Vocational skills
• Music and dancing
• Having role odels

The kit will work to meet these types of needs of the youth! It will then be piloted as part of the Uniform Referral Pathway capacity building program in February 2015. (Uhambo has identified through community surveys conducted last year that the referral system to services for children and youth with disabilities in rural and underdeveloped communities is ineffective and inefficient. As such, Uhambo has been contributing to the development of a Protocol for a Uniform Referral Pathway (URP) for the Western Cape region which will define clear guidelines, principles, key roles and responsibilities of government departments, NGOs, civil society organizations and institutions that deliver services to children and youth with disabilities.)

Thanks to your contribution, these children and in other communities like Vredenburg will be able to experience opportunities never imagined before! 

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