The Noluthando Special Needs School in Khayelitsha opened their newly built Treatment & Assessment Centre on Friday, 7 December 2018. At a cost of R2.6m the Centre provides capacity for specialist therapy treatments to learners.

Approximately 300 children currently benefit from the special needs facilities that are aimed at educating hearing impaired and autistic learners (ASD).

The school realised it needed a separate Centre to accommodate the medical professionals, including speech therapists, audiologists and physiotherapists that support the learners. Previously the therapists occupied whatever spaces were available around the complex.

The new Centre provides private areas, observation rooms, offices and ablutions. The spaces that the therapists were using are now providing additional room for learners that were on the waiting list to attend the school.

The school asked The Rotary Club of Newlands (RCN), which has supported the school with several additional facilities over the past years, to design, obtain funding and construct the dedicated building from which services could be accessed.

“Rotarians believe in a philosophy of “service above self” and through the relationship we have had with Noluthando for the past 13 years, we have been able to plan and deliver this project, as well as other projects that may not have otherwise been available to the learners that need them,” says Rotarian John Winship. RCN has facilitated the construction of the school hall, the Autism Centre, the Vukani Care Centre and specialist classrooms. 

"As a Resource Centre, one of our duties is to support our neighbouring schools through our outreach programme. This Centre will enable our professional team to extend their services to the surrounding community of Khayelitsha. We are extremely grateful to the RCN for sponsoring such a world class facility for our learners," says Ayanda Alfred Ncinane, the principal of Noluthando School for Deaf.

The project funders include Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages, WECD, The Ackerman Educational Trust, Trellidor and the MM Foundation of Lichtenstein.

“We are thrilled to be a part of such an important project, which is serving a great need in this community,” says Priscilla Urquhart, Public Affairs and Communications Manager for Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages. “It is wonderful to see how this building will empower these students to participate fully as members of society.”