Eden District Municipality hosted a workshop in George last week where municipalities, government departments and non-governmental organisations concerned with people with disabilities came together to discuss collaboration. The end result they are aiming for is a comprehensive plan for the Eden District addressing the requirements of people with disabilities.
According to Una Petersen, head of special programmes at the Department of Social Development, legislation on the rights of people with disabilities is fragmented and they are trying to bring all role players together to look at how they can work towards a more seamless and streamlined system that will improve services to people with disabilities.
"It should be a plan with input of people on ground level, especially including people with disabilities themselves," she said.
Therefore, forums are to be established soon on which people with disabilities will be represented so that they can provide input in the compilation of the Eden plan. A database is foreseen that will list the available services and where they can be accessed.
Workshops were held in Oudtshoorn, Ladismith and Riversdal and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Department of Social Development and Eden DM.
Some of the representatives who attended the workshop on matters concerning people with disabilities, from left: Vermith Kleinbooi (Eden District Municipality), John Gertse (Hessequa Municipality), Jan Ellis (Eden), Franklin Booysen (Oudtshoorn Municipality), Melanie Wilson (Eden), Mario Appels (Eden), Una Petersen (Social Development Department), Angeline Naidoo (Eden) and Johannes Jafta (Eden). Photo: Alida de Beer
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