Meropa spruces up at Reakgona Disability Centre

In the spirit of International Mandela Day, a team from Sun Meropa was galvanized to clean and spruce up Meropa House at the Reakgona Disability Centre. The clean-up included deep clean on the tiling floors, windows and ablutions, mowing the lawns and planting new flowers to restore the place to its former glory. Sun Meropa renovated the house, Reakgona’s oldest self-built residences, in 2015 to the tune of over R831 000.

When Sun Meropa evaluated the home two years prior to the renovation, it was found to no longer be suitable for housing the intellectually impaired young people who called it home. It lacked security and did not properly serve its purpose as a stimulation home. Sun Meropa undertook the task to develop the home into a state of the art centre for intellectually and physically challenged people. Meropa believes in working together with communities, sharing roles and responsibilities where possible. To this end, Meropa purchased the materials and the residents were encouraged to assist with labour on certain aspects of the renovation so as to create a sense of ownership. At the same time, this has gone a long way into saving much needed costs related to the project.

Reakgona Disability Centre is a hub for the intellectually impaired adults drawn from Limpopo Province. The centre was established in February of 1998 with 22 adults who came from Grace and Hope Lsen School, a pioneering school for the mentally handicapped which was founded and established by parents of disabled children, under the same leadership. While the Grace and Hope Lsen School was meeting their needs, when learners reached the age of 18 they needed to move onto the next phase of their lives, as is true of all young adults. Reakgona has filled this necessary gap by providing life skills development for residents and those that commute to and from their homes in Seshego. Today Reakgona serves 154 people coming from the whole of Limpopo Province, caring and training for a spectrum of mental disability (epileptics, brain damaged, micro and hydrocephalic, autism and Down syndrome).