Wheelchairs for kids with special needs

The parents of the children with special needs who recently received new wheelchairs commended the South African Healthcare and Vodacom foundations as “sent by God” to make the lives of their children easier.

Speaking after receiving a new wheelchair for her son, Ms Tintswalo Baloyi, one of the parents, said life had not been easy for them when it came to caring for their children who have special needs. She was one of the nine parents who received wheelchairs from the foundations during a function held at Tshilidzini Recreational Hall last Friday.

Towards the end of last year, the South African Healthcare Foundation donated medical equipment worth hundreds of thousands of rands to the Thohoyandou Health Centre in Block G. Now the organisation has partnered with the Vodacom Foundation and they are making their presence felt countrywide.

They have assisted in many community initiatives in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. On Friday, they came back to Vhembe and donated nine state-of-the-art wheelchairs for the use by children with special needs at Tshilidzini Hospital.

Representing the foundations, Ms Rachel Dlamini said they were impressed by the work done at the rehabilitation centre of the hospital. “Raising a child is quite a difficult task, but raising a child with special needs becomes more difficult. The staff at the centre do their job with courage and dignity and this humbled us. We decided to ease their work load by donating these wheelchairs.”
She added that they were aware that it was not enough as the centre had requested 20, but they could only supply nine as their financial year had just ended. “This is not the start or the end of the partnership, but we hope we will come back and make a difference in people’s lives, “ she said.
Tshilidzini Hospital CEO Mpho Mufamadi said that, inasmuch as the hospital would have loved to provide for the needs of all the children with special needs, their hands were bound by financial constraints. 

“We are very excited to have partners like these who decided to come to the party and assist us in giving excellent service to our communities. This is not enough, but they say half a loaf is better than no bread. Please come back and help us do more for our communities,” he said.

News - Date: 20 April 2016

Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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