Thursday, August 1st Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities located in Chatsworth.

Thursday we finally heard from the director of the Youth Centre and he would not promise that we would have electricity on Saturday, so we had to call off the pressure wash. He did say that there would be electricity for the event. We can only hope.

We then got a call from the wheelchair company and found out that they thought the handover was on August 20th. We don't know where they got that idea, but he said he didn't think they could have the wheelchairs made in time. Now we were very distressed. Elder Kyle was pleading with him and telling him how we have everything in place for August 10th. He said he would try to see if they could pull some wheelchairs from other jobs, but didn't promise anything. It was a scary moment, but all we can do is wait...and pray that he comes up with 44 chairs.

We then took a trip to Clive's office in Chatsworth. He is on our public affairs council for Hillcrest Stake. It wasn't too hard to find. We took him some flyers, as he was wanting to get some flyers passed out in the area. He was also full of ideas about the Apostle visiting in October, so we stayed and talked to him quite a while.


From there we went to our 11:00 appointment at the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities located in Chatsworth. We are giving them eight of the wheelchairs. It is a Muslim-run non-profit organization that brings in people with physical and mental disabilities and provides ways to keep them busy and teach them.






She showed us through the property and took us in to meet some of the people. She said she has a waiting list with 110 names on it for people who need wheelchairs, but was grateful that we were giving them eight chairs. She told us about their fundraising activity coming up and we invited her and her staff, plus the wheelchair recipients to the concert. She said most of the recipients would not be able to come, because they would have no transportation and they are from many different areas.



Apparently their normal transportation does not run on Saturdays.
She said they have some Social Worker on staff that are getting a small stipend from the Government Municipality, but everyone else depends upon donations and volunteers to keep the place running. This seems to be the problem with all these agencies that are trying to address these type of problems. We both noticed how clean the place was. Not a speck of dirt anywhere. It was very admirable. I can't remember what they were doing with the pieces of paper, but there was a use for the paper.

We then went to visit Adele again from the Durban South Skills Development NGO. We got to see some of the people we met the last time, plus we met some different people that were not there the first time we came. They were all working hard on the same items that fill the headrests and seemed to be a happy group. They were pretty shy about getting their pictures taken, but were all smiles when we walked in. Adele was her wonderful self. We spoke to her again about the concert and wheelchair event. She said they were all coming and transportation was provided. Her biggest worry was that some of the people had to use public transport and they wanted to take their chairs to the event, but didn't know how they were going to be able to get the original chair, plus their new chair back on the transport vehicle. Wheelchairs take up a lot of room.We also talked about leaving their old chairs behind and getting their new chairs when they got there, but she said they were afraid to part with their chairs. Some of them cannot sit in a regular chair. They need the support of the wheelchair. Adele talked about pulling a small trailer behind the van so they could fit two chairs each. These people are doers and we left there sure that they would find a way. Adele was so excited about the concert and promised to pass out flyers to her neighbors. She also told us she was a woman being honoured on Woman's Day which is August the 9th. She said she won the award in 2011 and now they were giving it to her again. She said it was a great week for her with the award dinner and the concert. You gotta love that woman! That's her in the photo coming out of her carport where all the handicapped people are busily working. 

When you see these people trying so hard to do the right thing, without any thought about their own needs and wants, it is very humbling. We know that when our mission is over, our lives will never be the same. We take so much for granted in the United States. No matter how much we complain, it will never be as hard as it is in Africa.