A day for trumpeting the quality of human resilience
Disability-support institutions marked International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Wednesday with parades, dress-up, a wheelchair kaskar event and lots of fun.
Held at the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre (WCRC) in Lentegeur, the day was also marked by speakers giving inspiring stories of resilience and hope.
The theme of the event on Tuesday was “Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress”, which meant that behind every disability is a person with hopes, dreams and a story to tell, according to event MC Fatima Peters, CEO of WCRC.
Beyond the label
While some people are born with varying degrees of intellectual, physical or psychosocial disabilities, thousands more acquire disabilities during their lifetime through trauma, motor vehicle accidents, chronic diseases or infections.
Tauriq Mustafah knows this reality all too well. When a motorcycle accident left him paralysed in 2016 his world changed forever.
“Before the accident I was very active. Surfing and motorcross racing were my thing, and then my accident happened. I thought my life would be completely cut off, but because of the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre my life changed completely.”
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Today, the former WCRC patient is a successful entrepreneur in the electronics space, proving that physical limitations don’t determine life’s possibilities.
“When you are in this position, people think physical work is the only thing that will get you somewhere in life. But at the end of the day your brain is the strongest tool. If you can use your brain you can do anything.”
Inspiring early steps
Admitted attorney and law-firm director Erin Goliath’s journey began with bilateral club feet, her legs resting on her shoulders and feet facing backwards at birth. Doctors doubted she would ever walk.While medical experts predicted she may walk at 7, her 9-month-old brother’s first steps sparked her determination. At just 2½ years old Goliath took her first steps.
“I had 18 or 19 reconstructive surgeries. My brother is 30 years old now, and whether he knew it or not he was my inspiration”
Her brother’s later schizophrenia diagnosis deepened her understanding of disability’s many faces. “Having a brother with a mental disability, as someone who has a physical disability, fully exposed me to the magnitude of what it means to live differently.”
Comprehensive care
Allied health workers, including occupational therapists, physiotherapists and rehabilitation care workers, from WCRC’s sister facilities the Pinelands Orthotic and Prosthetic Centre (OPC) and the Brackengate Transition Care Centre also marked International Day by performing necessary repairs at their facilities.
Physio Janine Matthews jokingly called Peters the “first lady” of physical rehabilitation. She, in turn, described her role as both a responsibility and privilege.
“It is the privilege of seeing human resilience in action and of supporting people as they rebuild their lives after losses that affect their independence, their work and their roles in family and community.” Peters lives with deafness and uses a cochlear implant, and she emphasised the importance of seeing beyond impairments.
“I believe that to advance social progress we must, from the onset, recognise the person and not the impairment. Our impairments are part of who we are, but they do not define us. Today is a reminder that disability is part of a community, our families, our world, and that our systems, attitudes and decisions must reflect that.”
Rebuilding lives
The WCRC provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary rehabilitation for people with complex disabling conditions. Core services include medical and nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, dietetics and speech therapy.
Specialised resources include wheelchair repair workshops, on-site pharmacy, radiography and psychology services. All referrals come from tertiary, regional and district hospitals once patients are medically stable.
Brackengate Transitional Care Centre offers short-term, multidisciplinary support for medically-stable patients requiring ongoing care after acute illness, surgery or chronic condition complications.
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