CHANGEMAKER | From struggling at school to empowering people with disabilities

By Lucas Phelwane, Health-e News

Thapelo Tshabalala, author and co-founder of Tshwane Disability Empowerment Projects, knows what it is like to feel excluded because of a disability.

Growing up, Tshabalala struggled to read and write and says he was repeatedly told by teachers and family that he would not succeed.

“Living with digraphia was difficult for me because every time I have to go to school I will always think about the words from the teachers saying I am not going anywhere,” he says.

Dysgraphia is a neurological condition that can affect a person’s ability to write.

Despite his difficulties at school, Tshabalala continued studying and completed a master’s degree at Tshwane University of Technology in 2022.

His research focused on creating accessible adventure tourism experiences for people with disabilities. Listening to the experiences of people who participated in his research prompted him to become more involved in disability advocacy.

“I then decided to be a voice for them,” he says.

His experiences eventually led him into disability advocacy. He published Epitome of Disability: Challenging Barriers in Education and Beyond and in 2023 co-founded Tshwane Disability Empowerment Projects in Stinkwater in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.

Creating opportunities

Tshabalala’s centre now provides programmes to 45 people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 45. These include sewing, agriculture, baking, sport and recreation.

A mobile vegetable garden, created using recycled tyres, produces vegetables including spinach, beetroot and onions for its kitchen.

Tshabalala is currently a third-year PhD student at the University of the Western Cape, where his research focuses on developing guidelines for accessible transport for people with disabilities in South Africa.

Keeping the programme going

The Department of Social Development funds places for 20 people with disabilities at the centre as well as four staff positions.

But Tshabalala says funding does not cover some of the practical programmes at the heart of the organisation’s work.

He says the organisation struggles to buy materials for its sewing, agriculture and baking programmes, while some volunteer facilitators have left because there is no funding to pay them.

“We struggle to develop our agriculture project because of lack of resources and struggle to maintain baking programs because we can’t get funding for material,” Tshabalala says.

Tshabalala says keeping these programmes running is central to what he wants the organisation to achieve – giving people with disabilities practical skills that can help them become more financially independent.

Source: Read the original report at Health-e News.