The Zithulele Therapy Department is the combined Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy departments. Our aim is to provide an excellent rehabilitation service which is modified to meet the specific needs of people who live in a rural setting. Up to now, the JRHF has helped to support our work in the following ways: the purchase of foam which we use to modify wheelchairs and seats for disabled children, and wood with which we made transfer boards which enable wheelchair users to slide from their bed to their wheelchair.

In February 2009 in association with Cross Country Missions, JRHF put up a Jungle Gym outside the paediatric ward which has been a great success with the children in the ward. Working with Donald Woods Foundation also resulted in 54 very welcome wheelchairs that ensured that our patients don't wait 6 months for a wheelchair anymore. Other contributions have been a sewing machine for making pressure garments, toys for the department which make the children's visits and assessments less traumatic. Through support of JRHF we have been able to buy plastic chairs and convert them into commodes for patients.
It makes a huge difference to our morale and job satisfaction to have materials to work with, and any contributions small or large are very welcome! Further ideas of ways that you can help or get involved in the work we do are listed below

Many people have problems in their joints, such that they need to be able to protect them from becoming deformed. We make splints that can do this, but the material is very expensive and currently we have no budget and little hope of getting anything through the hospital system (although we believe in persisting in our attempts!) Donations of the spinting material would be very welcome.  Webbing and velcro are also essentials for this task.

Occasionally the smallest adaption to a home can allow someone to be independent when they previously were not. This might be a rail, or a ramp, or a path. Funding for the materials and some eager DIY people could definitely enhance our work here. A team build perhaps?

This is the perfect place to put wheelchair designs to the test. If you think mountain biking is an extreme sport, we would love to introduce you to the excitement of going down a narrow, angled path on a rocky hilllside to your home in a conventional wheelchair! Worldmade 3’s, ATW’s and others are better suited to our environment, but people are not really aware that they exist.

Fortunately we still have access to tools owned by our therapists, but it is not ideal to abuse their generosity. We would love to have our own departmental tools – a jigsaw, a drill, a tool set (although if needs be, we can fix wheelchairs and wooden equipment with wire and a hammer…). Hand mirrors would be great to give out to all the people with spinal cord injuries so that they can check their skin.

Networking is something we value! We would love to host experts of any form in the rehabilitation field. Currently we have a desperate need for Speech and Language Therapists: too many of our childern have no means of communicating, and patients suffering from strokes die due to the absence of swallowing experts.

“To find Tata Vuyani’s house you need to go down that road at that hill. Then you go past the blue houses, before the big tree, there is water, and the school is near there, then you must ask them for his home.”
We have many patients who live in very remote parts of our district, and a small dream would be to use a GPS to plot their locations, so that information about where they live doesn’t get lost, and they are easily located.