Alex centre cries for financial and volunteer support

The cash-strapped Connie Mngomezulu Training Centre for youth living with disabilities in Marlboro is appealing for financial support to enable it to carry out its noble services of looking after its more than 70 beneficiaries.

The call was made by social worker and centre manager Albertina Ramogase along with her colleagues at the centre, auxiliary social worker Phumzile Nyamende and deputy board secretary Sizwe Mnguni during an interview with Alex News.

Ramogase said since going their separate ways with Nokuthula School in 2018, the centre has struggled to find decent accommodation to house its beneficiaries and the current property they were renting posed several challenges.

“The property is too compact for the ever-rising number of beneficiaries, has challenging stairs to be climbed and a general lack of space for their various skills training workshops for the beneficiaries.

“The skills we teach the beneficiaries, such as arts and crafts, beading, welding and other skills, are designed to make the beneficiaries be able to independently sustain themselves but this is hampered by the limited and compact space available,” Ramogase said.

She said they were currently trying to renovate a garage and turn it into a workshop for their skills programme but they had limited financial resources to do so.

“We would also like to tap into the tourism market for our arts and crafts and beading work as we currently don’t have a stable market for our products. We also need volunteers with marketing skills to join to help find the markets for us as well.”

The centre is due to hold its annual general meeting on November 19 and has called on the parents of the beneficiaries and the community to support their work by volunteering.

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