Oasis Association, a community foundation that assists people with intellectual disabilities, is exceptional because of its holistic approach to integrating social concerns with environmental issues.
The judging panel of the Greening the Future-Investing in the Environment 2003 Awards voted it the winner in the Independent Foundations category because of its ‘comprehensive sustainability, environmental innovation and social involvement”.
‘This is a special and unique project,” the judges said. ‘It has explored the question of recycling and re-use of resources very efficiently, even venturing into areas where no one else has bothered to go.”
A recent, successful innovation has seen Oasis cleaning up after special events and recycling discarded materials. For instance, workers and volunteers removed a staggering five tons of recyclable material left lying around after the J&B Met at Kennilworth Racecourse in February.
Based in Claremont, Cape Town, the association’s mission is ‘to enable persons with intellectual disability to realise their fullest potential and thereby become as independent and productive as possible”. About 87% of its workforce comprises people with intellectual disabilities who are employed in recycling and waste management projects that generate income for the association and contribute to its self-sustainability.
At the heart of the Oasis project are recycling and waste management workshops, or stations, based at Elsies River and Claremont. They serve a number of interwoven goals and principles.
The workshops provide jobs for more than 300 people with moderate intellectual disabilities who would battle to find work in the open labour market. The workshops recycle some 40 to 60 tons of paper and cardboard a month, more than four tons of plastic, 12,2 tons of glass and 1,3 tons of tin and metal.
Says Marcelle Peuckert, donor development manager at Oasis: ‘The workshops are pretty much like a normal work environment. They are not just activity centres, they are structured work environments. We have a very productive, dedicated workforce.”
The workshops provide more than just financial remuneration for the workers. ‘The dignity of work is more important than anything else,” says Peuckert. ‘To see what people can do when given the opportunity is absolutely amazing. People with intellectual disability need to be given those chances.”
The workshops also provide social and educational opportunities for their workers. Nazeem Isaacs, a 20-year-old worker at the Claremont workshop, says: ‘I was just sitting around doing nothing, so I was very happy when I found work here. It’s given me work to do and I have met friends.”
According to Peuckert, there is a great danger of intellectually disabled people being exploited or abused if they are not given work or placed in institutions that provide care for them. Many of the Oasis workers come from poor families and are now helping support those families.
The workshops include a collection service and so provide a recycling outlet for environmentally friendly individuals and businesses. In the process, the project benefits the municipal cleaning services and helps reduce pressure on landfill sites.
The recycling projects are supported by more than 700 households and 18 businesses, schools and restaurants each month. They are endorsed by the Fairest Cape Association and the provincial department of environmental affairs and development planning.
The income generated from recycling is fed back into other Oasis services that include day-care centres, residency homes and the provision of social workers.
‘For us it’s vitally important to take whatever steps we can to reach self-sustainability and to provide continuous employment for people. It’s difficult to compete for the donor rand,” says Peuckert.
Another key focus is providing environmental education in schools. The association’s ‘green bag” campaign, launched last year, aims to place the responsibility for recycling on to learners. The campaign has, so far, targeted five schools in the Claremont and Elsies River areas and collects 400 bags of recyclable material from these schools every week.
The school education programme has a dual purpose — to educate learners about issues surrounding intellectual disability and the environment. Peuckert says: ‘We talk to learners about what intellectual disability is, about our work operations and go on to the environmental side of things. We’ve found it to be tremendously successful.”
The association runs day-care centres for children with intellectual disabilities in Ravensmead and Delft. Together the centres cater for 85 children who are taught basic life skills under caring supervision.
The centres have a volunteer programme. Students studying social work, physiotherapy, care of the disabled and nursing at universities and colleges in the Cape Town area offer their services for free.
The judges noted that, although Oasis has already received a number of awards in the past, it deserved further recognition. ‘The organisation is systematically measuring its impact and introducing innovations,” they said.