Lev Projects

Down Syndrome South Africa has been financially supported by LEV/DSI (Denmark) from 2004 – 2010 (March) Our projects have been: Organisational Development, Outreach, Strategic Planning and Development and the Self Advocacy Project. Although the funding for these projects have ceased the development of our organisation has been huge and without this support it is clear that we would not have been able to achieve what we have during this time

These projects entailed strengthening our branches by placing an “outreach co-ordinator in 7 of our branches. Although most of our branches have already been providing this service we felt it necessary to take up this challenge as a National initiative. The aim is to reach out into the poverty stricken areas that previously have not been supported by our branches and focus on assisting those who need our services the most.

These co-ordinators have been sourced from the areas that they will be working in. This ensures that they will not only be familiar with the area but language and cultural beliefs too. The first phase of the project has begun with the appointment and training of the co-ordinators. The role of the co-ordinator will be to identify people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities and their families to provide support and services such as counselling, information, early intervention and home programmes, empowerment, therapy, and advice on nutrition and health as well as assisting in accessing other services such as grants, schooling, etc. The above will be provided at no costs to the family.

These projects also allowed us to be involved in research and developing programmes and writing modules for training in our branches. The training that has taken place has been on Good governance, Best practice and Early intervention. Materials were also given to all branches on Inclusive education, Media, Medical and Health care. New materials has been developing and is available under the Early Intervention Bar on our website.

More recently DSSA established the Self Advocacy Movement of South Africa where 19 young adults with Down Syndrome and other Intellectual Disabilities were trained on their rights and to 'Stand Up and Speak for Themselves'

These projects has also enabled us to link with other disabled people’s organisations and government hospitals and clinics working in these areas to assist us in identifying babies and refer them to us as soon as possible.