Ithemba Special Day Care Assistant

About the Program

The intention of a special day care centre like this is to give disabled children the attention and support they need (knowledge, time and means are usually insufficient in townships).

Next to education and attention, Ithemba includes the teaching of basic life skills. In this way more independency is created. This is a very useful and positive development (especially for disabled children) as they can maintain themselves better in society. Furthermore, Ithemba tries to include parents in the program to expand their knowledge of different disabilities and how to cope with them.

Ithemba came into existence in September 1988, when 3 local community members were discussing the fact that mentally disabled children didn’t have the opportunity to educate and develop themselves because there was no special day care centre. To examine the real need for such a centre they enumerated the level of demand within the townships. Especially parents of mentally disabled children were asked for their opinion. Apparently, the parents encountered a lot of problems which they were unable to tackle themselves. The biggest problems were lack of attention, lack of tools, stalled development and no independency. The early founders of Ithemba concluded that the existing level of demand for a special day care centre was huge and proceeded to put the original idea into reality.

They started a centre for disabled township children that at first, was run from an empty ward at the hospital. As more parents heard about the centre the numbers of children attending increased. The ward became too crowded and the founders of Ithemba realized the need to build their own centre.

Today Ithemba has its own centre with 3 classrooms, a therapy room, office, kitchen and volunteer offices, playground and gardens around the premises providing daily support to up to 44 children with a team of 3 teachers, class assistants, a cook, Centre Manager and other supporting staff. 

The support of volunteer and trainees will consist of several tasks:

• Individual work: physiotherapy/speech therapy/occupational therapy
  
• Give a lesson in classroom (teachers will translate)
  
• Arrange outings for a group of children
  
• Daily life activities: going to the shop, learn to look out for traffic, behaving safely in their environment
  
• Basic mathematics, reading and writing, counting, alphabet
  
• Creative work
  
• Garden work: watering plants and vegetables
  
• Self-help skills: toilet training, washing, dressing, shoelaces, buttons, brushing teeth
  
• Colouring, painting, any other suitable form of handwork
  
• Board and card games
  
• Sports and games: ball skills, new games
  
• Self-help skills to enable children to be more self-sufficient: washing, dressing, shoelaces, brushing teeth
  
• Domestic skills: cleaning, sweeping, wiping, washing
  
• You will work Monday-Thursday from about 8h00-14h30, while Friday is from 8h00-12h00 and weekends are off. Some days might start earlier or later and in summertime, due to the heat, hours can change.
  

PE is the biggest city of the Eastern Cape, with approximately 1.2 million inhabitants (including the Northern areas, Despatch and Uitenhage). In the Eastern Cape you will find cities such as Bisho, King William’s Town and Umtata which can be found in the regions of the Transkei and Ciskei, which were known as ‘homelands’ in the Apartheid years.

During the Apartheid era, the ‘homelands’ were the home of the Xhosa speaking people. There weren’t a lot of facilities and work opportunities in those areas. Many off the Xhosa people worked in the bigger cities, but went home every year to visit their families. Fort Hare University was the only university in the area where Xhosa people were allowed to study. Famous politicians namely Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Steve Biko completed their studies at this university. Although Bisho is the capital of the Eastern Cape, it remains poor and an undeveloped city. Many people moved from these homelands to Port Elizabeth in search of employment and a better life.

The Eastern Cape is as culturally diverse as it is in nature and the climate of the region. The diversity in culture is represented by the black population (mostly Xhosa speaking), coloureds, Indian and white people of Port Elizabeth. As you can see here and will surely notice in South Africa; we do not mind using the colour of our skins to be identified with, so there is nothing insulting to call somebody black if they are.

The Eastern Cape and the surroundings of Port Elizabeth show a large variety of natural beauty and make PE a great central place to visit the variety of South Africa. To the East you will find the Wild coast (former Transkei and Ciskei) which is mostly rural and undeveloped, but closer you will find Addo Elephant Park and great coastal villages such as Port Alfred.