Mother’s plea for vulnerable child, 6

A MOTHER of a 6-year-old disabled girl from Masiphumelele has appealed to the government to help her find a living space suitable for her child’s osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis weakens bones and increases the risk of them breaking from a fall or, in serious cases, even from sneezing.

Little Kuhle cannot use her wheelchair because the alleys in the Wetlands informal settlement, where she shares a two-bedroom home with six other family members, are narrow and gravel-strewn.

The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital donated the wheelchair and because Kuhle cannot use it, she crawls around.

She is small for her age and could be mistaken for a 1-year-old, but is talkative and playful. Most of the time her mother, Busisiwe Ngcukana, 28, has to carry Kuhle on her back. Her sisters and neighbours at times help look after Kuhle when Ngcukana is busy.

She appealed to social workers and even registered her name with the housing demand database three years ago, but is no closer to a solution.

When the Cape Times visited, Kuhle was cheerfully playing with her cousin, Ayola Ngcukana, 7.

“Kuhle got the wheelchair when she was four years old, but she did not use it for long because she cannot move it in this area because the surface of the roads is gravel and bumpy. She doesn’t like it,” said her mother.

“The conditions here are not suitable for a child like her. There is not even a school that caters for her needs.”

Ngcukana said she had enrolled Kuhle at a nearby preschool for able-bodied children, but she did not cope as “the teachers were not trained for her condition”.

Ngcukana said her priority was to get a school for Kuhle. “She needs one: I am worried that one day I will get a job and no one will look after her.”

Kuhle survives on a government disability grant..

Ntomboxolo MakobaSomdaka, spokesperson for Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, advised Ngcukana to specify Kuhle’s disability in the housing demand database as

“Kuhle falls under the category of the most deserving people”.