The North West MEC for Health and Social Development, Ms Rebecca Kasienyane is to host the Minister for Social Development Ms Edna Molewa and Social Development MEC's from other provinces.
The Minister and the MEC's (MINMEC) will visit the North West province from 3 to 4 June 2010. The aim of the visit is to assess, monitor and highlight achievements done on national and provincial priority programmes for social development.
The MINMEC visit which has already taken place in other provinces also aims at giving some MEC’s an opportunity to learn new methods from other provinces.
The North West visit will focus on Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district which is one of the rural districts of the province. The emphasis will be on the departmental Mass Mobilisation programme on Early Childhood
Development (ECD) centre in Taung-Chokonyane village, the Poverty Eradication Strategy project in Dryharts and Sitting Polar villages and the disability centre in Vryburg-Huhudi.
Under the Mass Mobilisation programme on ECD, the minister will conduct a ceremonial handover of equipment worth R1.4 million to 10 ECD's in Greater Taung local municipality. This gesture by the minister is to show support and appreciation to community members who have committed their time and energy to provide the ECD services.
These services are recognised as the ideal phase for the passing on values that are important for the building of a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society. Quality provision of ECD services increase education efficiency as children acquire the basic concepts, skills and attitudes required for successful learning and development.
The visit to the Poverty Eradication project in Dryharts will entail a handover of funds and food parcels as a strategy to eradicate poverty within our communities. This gesture is also in line with the "War on Poverty" campaign which was launched in December 2008 by the deputy president and the then North West premier in Greater Taung municipality.
The Anti Poverty campaign targeted 33 poor households in ward four, Greater Taung, with children and women as primary caregivers, unemployed people and people with disabilities.
It is a short term phase that utilises the list of options of interventions already in place for example, the social grants, food gardens, free basic services, EPWP and other specific sector strategies.
Minister Edna Molewa together with MEC Kasienyane will hand over a cheque of over R300 000.00 to two benefiting communities in that area.
The last visit to the disability day care centre in Vryburg-Huhudi will focus on a community based entity that is established and managed by community members who experience the same need and share the same vision to address the plight of persons with disabilities.
These entities are established to care for children and adults with disabilities who due to their disabilities cannot be catered for within the mainstream of Early Childhood Development programmes and other developmental social welfare programmes.
The centre will benefit a substantial amount from the R10 million, that the minister will be handing over to disability day care services throughout the province. That money will be utilised for upgrading the centre and for implementation of the programme.
The MINMEC visit will end with an outreach programme at Madibogo sport ground where the Batho Pele programme will be taken forward with an integration of services with all multi sectoral participation like the application for grants by the South African State Security Agency (SASSA), the application for Identity documents by Home Affairs, the provision of HIV counselling and testing by the Department of Health and Social Development.
The media is therefore invited to cover the events as follows:
Date: 3 June 2010
Project to be visited: Mass Mobilisation programme on ECD
Time: 09h00
Date: 3 June 2010
Project to be visited: Poverty Eradication Strategy
Time: 10h00
Date: 3 June 2010
Project to be visited: Disability Day Care Centre
Time: 11h00
Date: 4 June 2010
Project to be visited: Outreach to Ratlou local municipality (Madibogo Sport ground)
Time: 09h00
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Cell: 082 929 9958
E-mail: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
Ngwako J Motsieng
Tel: 018 387 5740
Cell: 082 964 8838 or 082 097 4970
Fax to e-mail: 0866 342 993
E-mail: nmotsieng@nwpg.gov.za or nmotsieng@gmail.com.
