Walkway for the disabled in Akasia completed
The project, spearheaded by inspiring women, was completed this month to provide a safe route for the disabled to a training facility in Clarina.
A walkway that allows safe travel for people with disabilities, was unveiled this week.
This special walkway from the busy Daan De Wet Nel Drive to a training centre in Theron Street, Clarina was completed in little more than five months.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams, MMC for social development Thabisile Vilakazi, councillors and community members at the Guest Resources Services centre attended its opening on Tuesday.
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Ward councillor Marnette Sutherland, who played an integral role in the walkway project, said the unveiling took place in conjunction with the DA’s “Talking Tuesday”, wherein councillors met with residents to discuss issues in their communities.
“Disabled, or rather ‘differently abled’ people have always held a special place in my heart and so I am thankful that we could complete this project in such a short amount of time,” said Sutherland.
The walkway is specifically designed to aid blind people with walking sticks, guides or guide dogs and provides spacious and easy travel for people in wheelchairs.
“This was designed so that disabled people, dropped off by taxis in Daan De Wet Nel Drive, can safely cross to the training centre.”
Guest Resource Services centre in Theron Street offers training and learnership to more than a 1 000 adults, many with disabilities that make travelling difficult.
The centre was established in June 1996 by Dr Wilma Guest-Mouton, with the initial focus on life skills training.
It soon became an accredited provider, specialising in supervisory, management and project management training.
Today Guest Resource Services is a credible provider of choice for many companies in South Africa and offers 12 different NQF qualifications, with the focus on adult training, with their underpinning philosophy being to guide people “from self-knowledge” to “self-responsibility”.
Speaking at the centre on Tuesday, Guest-Mouton said the centre relied on funding from its community.
Despite challenges, like the global pandemic, she said they were still growing strong and have added “blended learning” (an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with traditional place-based classroom methods) to their training.
Guest-Mouton said to have a walkway built for disabled learners was a dream come true.
“We’ve had an incident in the past where one of the students, walking to the centre, fell into an open manhole,” she said.
“We knew something needed to be done, and today I am so thankful for Marnette and all the role players who helped in building this walkway.”
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