Reaching out to the community
 

Amaoti in Inanda is one of the poorest communities on our doorstep ... a community hard hit by the Aids pandemic, which has robbed a generation of children of their parents, and shifted the burden of child care onto the frail shoulders of elderly grandparents.

TAFTA's response was to create a unique devlopment project – the Ilungelo Labadala Multi-purpose Centre, comprising a hall, training centre, kitchen block, shops, toilets, and four cottages providing subsidised accommodation to the aged and their orphaned grandchildren.

The Centre includes a pension pay-out point which operates three days a month and serves over two thousand pensioners in the district.

There is also a Service Centre operating two to three mornings a week, providing exercise classes, fellowship meetings, literacy classes and meals for pensioners and children.

More recently, we have added a Home Based Care programme and a Food Gardening Project. Ten trained caregivers currently visit 40 house-bound elderly and ill patients to assist with probelms such as stroke, epilepsy, high blood pressure and diabetes.

With the help of local farmers, a one-hectare plot was fenced and an irrigation system installed to start the food gardening project. The first group of 14 eager gardeners was trained and a second group are currently being enrolled.

Production has fluctuated, but lessons have been learned and the project looks set to go from strength to strength.

Ilungelo Labadala/TAFTA Development Project one-stop service schedule
 
Since the project was recognized as a one-stop service, further developments have been realized. This includes both physical and service developments. Two offices have been built and furnished.

Service Providers have arranged to meet their clients in the project new offices, as follows:

• Mzamo Child Guidance Clinic (Social Worker) - 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the Month.
• Ethekwini Municipality- Community Development Workers, Tuesday.
• Epilepsy Foundation- Social Worker, 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the Month.

Theresa Mwandla – Community Development Manager
(tel.) 031 5187989 / 031 3323 721.