20 December 2004

By Clifford Mogotsi

DISABLED people from Mogale City received a welcome early Christmas gift of wheelchairs and crutches from the West Rand Rehabilitation Department.

This year the department focused on rural areas, where it was discovered that most disabled people lived.

Moss Komane from the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons in the presidency said that last year it had targeted urban areas, which included greater Kagiso and Swanieville.

"Through workshops that we conduct around the city, we are able to identify our clients then afterwards visit their homes for further assessments," said Komane.

Before Komane and his crew headed to the rural areas, they stopped at Krugersdorp West to hand over a wheelchair to 54-year-old Bokie Adge, whose disability is the result of a gruesome car accident 25 years ago.

Adge could not hold back the excitement on seeing his Christmas gift. "My other wheelchair is very old; thank you very much for giving me the new wheels," he said.

The department visited Tarlton, Hekpoort, Magaliesburg and Muldersdrift.

Ten wheelchairs and walking sticks were donated in exchange for the old ones.

"Most of our clients are old and these wheelchairs and crutches are on loan until they die," said physiotherapist Muriel Mguni.

In Tarlton, Mguni and Komane were amazed and touched to see 40-year-old Anna Bogosi crawling on her knees. Bogosi suffers from muscular dystrophy, a disease characterised by progressive weakness and degeneration of the muscles.

"I have been suffering from this since 1995 and the doctors told me that I won't recover because I was born with low muscle-creatine levels," she said as she received a brand-new wheelchair.