Residents like Zama Zulu1 speak warmly about the KwaMakhutha Community Resource Centre’s Accessing Justice Programme as she, like many other residents, are living testament to the change made by this team.
“I’m living a healthy life regardless of my status and disability” - Zama
After hearing community members talking about the positive impact our legal and justice work had on their lives, Zama walked to the KwaMakhutha Community Resource Centre to vent her frustrations and grievances. She told the team about her failed attempts in applying for her disability grant. Zama didn’t understand the application process and she was battling to sustain her livelihood without this source of income.
She told the team that she was struggling to cope with her disability after she was hit by a taxi that resulted in the paralysis of her hand. As a self employed single mother, she found herself struggling to make ends meet and to put food on the table. Her efforts to apply for a disability grant were denied several times without any clarity.
Zama also told our team that she feared her health might be in jeopardy as she is on Antiretroviral (ARV) medication and the stresses of not accessing the disability grant application and poverty might negatively affect her. When on ARV medication, it’s very important to be in a healthy mental and physical state.Our team saw the urgency in Zama’s predicament and a plan to assist her was quickly implemented.
A Legal Activist wrote a letter to the South African Social Security Agency explaining Zama’s situation and advocating for her disability grant to be approved. Many of our community members are illiterate and find it difficult to understand the application process and the completion of the forms. We assisted Zama to correctly complete the forms and advised her on the medical reports she needed to attach to her application. Once the application forms were submitted, we continuously conducted follow up phone calls and correspondence urging for the grant to be approved immediately as she is on ARV treatment and needed the grant urgently.
Within weeks, her application was approved and she now receives her disability grant on a monthly basis. With the monthly income from the grant, Zama’s stress and anxiety has decreased and she is now fully committed to living a healthy life and adhering to her medication.
The grant has helped her avoid being evicted from her one bedroom rental apartment and she is now able to feed and clothe herself and her family.
Zama now lives a happier and healthier life with her disability while adhering to her medication.
Accessing disability grants affects many people like Zama. How do you think we can improve access? How do we use grants as a springboard to deal with other challenges like HIV and AIDS, unemployment, and food security? Please share your thoughts with us, as we would like to learn from them to better serve our community
1 A pseudonym has been used to protect this community member’s privacy.