June 20- July 3, 2008
South Africa is an amazing country. Everything I heard about how friendly and hospitable the people here are is absolutely true. People have invited us into their homes and treated us like we are family.
We are staying at the Dave Lewis Lodge in a part of Johannesburg called Edenvale. It is a Bed and Breakfast run by the Quad/Para Association of South Africa (QASA). It has a very comfortable atmosphere which is great since I will be there for a month. We are given breakfast and supply our own lunch and dinner which has been interesting since my culinary skills are severely limited. There are plenty of options to make up for my inability to cook. We have been privileged to have been invited into people’s homes to taste the local South African food which is a very delicious mix derived from the various cultures who have settled in this diverse country. Conrad and his girlfriend Viki stay at the lodge permanently and are wonderful people. It is nice to have such great company here at the lodge that makes sure we are taken care of in all aspects of our stay.
We are working at the National Council for People with Physical Disabilities of South Africa (NCPPDSA / National Council). The offices are in Melville, a more central area of Jo’burg than the lodge. We have been working closely with Therina and the other members of the National Council on their work and employment initiatives as well as outside contractors, especially Mandy who runs a placement agency. Our current project is creating a database of persons with physical disabilities in order to initiate services to get them into the workplace. This database will be a basis for facilitating placement of persons with physical disabilities in the workplace. There are many people with physical disabilities who need employment and many employers who are looking for people with physical disabilities to employ in order to comply with government standards. This database will be used to help training and placement agencies to get people the necessary skills and facilitate communication between employers and PWDs looking for jobs.
I have learned so much about disability just in my two weeks here. Since my studies focus on employment issues, I am very new to the specifics of disability employment. I have learned about many of the barriers to work for people with disabilities that are specific to the South African labor market and universal challenges. We have had the opportunity to participate in two strategic planning meetings. The first one was for the very recently established Committee on Children with Physical Disabilities. This meeting covered a very broad scope of issues and challenges. It was incredibly interesting to realize how relevant my studies have been to many of the issues that were discussed including training, staffing, retention, and education. I also attended the Social Development Committee meeting. This meeting was drastically different since the scope and issues were drastically different than those of the Children’s Committee. The meeting also had very different groups of stakeholders and the divergence of the expertise of the committee members determined the direction and focus of the meetings.
Last Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Lori Animal Park. The park was similar to a small zoo, but housed animals that were rescued or were born in captivity and are unable to survive in the wild. They had baby Siberian Tigers and were allowing people to go in and play with them. It was the last week they were allowing this, so it was a great opportunity. When we were there it became clear why it was the last week. The ‘baby’ tigers were 5 months old and playing with them meant standing in the cage with them while they played and one would occasionally lunge at someone. This especially applied to Mandy who they were relentless with for a while and were very near to popping the tires on her wheelchair. I was leaped on and bit on the arm. I quickly found out that running is not an effective way to get a tiger to stop attacking you. That was the point when I realized they weren’t going to purr and curl up next to me, so I was out of there.
It has been an amazing experience so far. I am learning so much right now about the labor market, disability, and the legal situation in South Africa. I am looking forward to reporting back on the successes and shortcomings of the employment of people with physical disabilities here in South Africa as well as the initiatives of the National Council and QASA.
Cheers,
rachel
