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City Parks and its partners have delivered another first for Johannesburg - the Nkanyezi Stimulation Park, a green oasis for children with disabilities.
IN the late months of 1989, a Soweto woman, Prisca Tshabalala, gave birth to a buoyant and beautiful little boy, and decided to name him Nkanyezi, which loosely translates as bright star in isiZulu.
Tshabalala, like every parent, would have loved her son to grow up to become a successful entrepreneur, a soccer player, maybe a kwaito kingpin as Soweto is famous for, or even a doctor.  City Parks workers were joined by some 300 Standard Bank employees to work around the clock to deliver a fully fenced park complete with all facilities and features, in record time Unfortunately, her dreams were shattered when Nkanyezi was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects communication between a person’s brain and muscles, leading to impaired mobility and irregular posture.
Although the condition is incurable, Nkanyezi’s mother was unwavering, and continued to nurture her son. Sadly, he passed away when he was 13. While cerebral palsy cannot be cured, thanks to modern medicine many sufferers can enjoy near-normal lives if their neurological problems are properly managed.
After her son’s death, Tshabalala made a commitment to herself that she would continue to look after children who had similar ailments or medical conditions at her school, the Nkanyezi Stimulation Centre, named in memory of her deceased son.
Cash fillip
Now, almost 19 years later, Tshabalala’s dream has received a boost thanks to a cash injection of R1 175 000 from City Parks and commercial entity, Standard Bank.
As part of City Parks’s extreme park makeover, a bare piece of land in the playground of the almost dilapidated centre has been transformed into a green oasis aimed at children with disabilities; the project, however, was not limited to the park and the school’s hall, stimulation room, and toilets were also overhauled.
Furnished and complete with an assortment of wheelchair-friendly swings, the park’s large central water feature sprays water in all directions, creating an eye-catching spectacle and a wonder for the kids.
It boasts a touch-and-smell greenhouse vegetable garden; indigenous trees and flower beds; other play equipment, including a wheelchair maze; a sprawling green lawn; and paved alleys; the Nkanyezi Stimulation Park is a green haven for its beneficiaries.  Cheerful Tumelo Bori, a 12-year-old with cerebral palsy, takes one of the swings for a test drive Wheelchair friendly
Tumelo Bori, a 12-year-old with cerebral palsy, is wheelchair bound - and is cheerfully taken out to play on the swings under the scorching sun. He has a full-on smile inscribed on his face, and his cheeks are red with laughter.
He squeals in delight at the sight of the swings. Tumelo’s teachers describe him as jovial and intelligent. Although he can hear, he cannot speak.
The Nkanyezi Stimulation Park was officially opened on Friday, 22 August, as part of City Parks’s extreme park makeover scheme, during which its workforce work around the clock to deliver a fully fenced park complete with all facilities and features, in record time.
Aimed at increasing the number of outdoor recreation facilities in the south, the scheme is also an effort to mobilise community ownership of green open spaces, promote a healthier lifestyle and inspire the entity’s employees to strive for service excellence.
Next to the new Orlando Stadium, the park is in Orlando West Gardens, on Armitage Street. It is part of a school, divided into two sections - for children with a variety of challenges and for able-bodied kids.
For the makeover, more than 300 Standard Bank employees from the bank’s group risk division and City Parks arrived at 9am to begin work on what would be Joburg’s first stimulation park for children with multiple disabilities, including physical, sensory and intellectual impairments.
Adequate facilities
Speaking at the opening, Tshabalala, the school’s principal, said that in the past, the centre had had difficulty raising funds to build these kinds of facilities. “Over the years we have struggled to ensure that our children who suffer from cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities have adequate facilities that meet their individual needs.”
This contribution from Standard Bank and City Parks “will ensure that we have stimulation equipment and a recreation facility that ordinarily would be expensive to develop”.
Paul Smith, the head of the bank’s group risk division, said: “This contribution presents us with an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these children and is in line with the core values of the bank … It is one of our core values to be relevant to the society which we serve; this is our way of giving something back to the community.
“This equipment and the upgrade that we are conducting will give these children access to the grounds and contribute to their overall sensory development.”
The completed park is only part of phase one of the centre’s overall development programme. In future, City Parks will raise funds to build an amphitheatre on site, ensuring that the children are able to enjoy different activities, including the viewing of the 2010 games in the comfort of the centre.
“City Parks has been observing International Day of Disabled Persons since 2001 and the development of the Nkanyezi Stimulation Park in partnership with the bank offers us an opportunity to do more,” said Luther Williamson, the managing director of City Parks.
In November 2007, City Parks bagged a number of awards at the UN-endorsed LivCom Awards, including a cash price of £10 000 (about R143 000), part of which was used to develop the Nkanyezi park.  The park is in Orlando West Gardens, on Armitage Street, a stone’s throw from Orlando Stadium Through the Nkanyezi project, City Parks wanted to develop the first park in Johannesburg that catered for children with disabilities and able-bodied children. It also gave the entity an opportunity to highlight the plight of people living with disabilities in the “context of Johannesburg’s growing economy and infrastructure”.
One of it aims was to urge city planners, developers and the corporate sector to consider the needs of disabled people when erecting structures or buildings. City Parks’s main aim is to make parks accessible to all.
Great job
The park was officially opened by the member of the mayoral committee for environment, Prema Naidoo. “This is a great job … It was a great stride to create such a haven for these children,” he said.
Thanking everyone concerned for the park, Tshabalala committed her school to looking after it. “I promise to take care of this park; it was born today and it is our child.
“This centre is the first of its kind in the township. Its raises the flag for people with disabilities, and declares that they too have rights and are human. We are proud of what our sponsors have done to transform our indoor haven for our children that are generally marginalised to due to their challenges.”
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