Enabling people with disabilities

MANY people who face mobility challenges receive employment opportunities through a long-term partnership between SPAR Eastern Cape and the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities (APD).

“We are proud to be a part of fundraising events such as the SPAR Women’s Challenge, which allow us to support organisations like the APD,” SPAR Eastern Cape’s advertising and sponsorship controller Roseann Shadrach said.

She said funds donated by the retailer went towards sustaining the association’s Ability Work Centres, where around 90 persons from impoverished communities in Nelson Mandela Bay were employed and taught skills.

“Our Ability Work Centres are expensive to run and we would not be able to sustain them without the generous donations we receive from our amazing supporters,” APD’s chief director Brian Bezuidenhout said.

APD in Nelson Mandela Bay were established in 1940 to promote the advancement of people with disabilities, enabling them to attain their maximum level of independence.

The organisation also raise awareness of the need to accommodate and provide for South Africans with disabilities, both in the workplace and society in general, to ensure their full integration.

“Our vision is for us to be the most accessible, inclusive and disability-friendly metro in South Africa,” Bezuidenhout said.

“We believe that by empowering persons with disabilities in their personal capacities they in turn become powerful catalysts for change in their immediate social circles and, in time, their communities.”