​The Gauteng Department of Social Development under the Directorate Gender Youth and Disability Mainstreaming (GYDM) hosted a two-day workshop, educating employees about disability in the workplace.
The workshop took place at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni.

According to the GYDM Director Leonie van der Merwe, the purpose of the workshop was to empower old and newly appointed focal point members, including employees with disabilities to understand the transformation agenda of the sector.

Different inputs presented by speakers from various institutions touched on issues such as disability rights, overview on transformation and the compliance on women empowerment, gender responsive budgeting and compliance on youth empowerment.

Office of the Premier’s acting Transformation Chief Director, Zain Bulbulia, presented an overview on what provincial departments are expected to do in order create a conducive environment for people with disabilities.

An employee from the Department who has a disability, Social Auxiliary Monde Chiya from Soshanguve Secure Centre, was one of the those who took part in the workshop.

Chiya has been with the Department for eight years and said she has been attending most of the disability workshops.

“I really feel honoured to be part of this workshop and especially for those who are new to the department because they are going to learn and understand how to deal with people with disability”.

“What I liked about this workshopis the information to empower us, however implementation is still a challenge. I would like to work with people with disabilities and not to be office based. I want to be on the ground and interact with them and listen to their challenges,” added Chiya.

Van der Merwe said the role of GYDM is to create an enabling environment, coordinate, monitor, evaluate, capacity building and to facilitate the implementation of gender, youth and disability mainstreaming in the Department.