Grandmother struggles to take care of a teenage grandson with disability.

Rethabile Seikaneng

Disability is a condition of the body or mind that makes it more difficult for the body to do certain activities.

Ma Mogapi is a 73-year-old lady staying at Block 3 with her grandson having a disability at the age of 18 years old. Ma Mogami started staying with her grandson when he was 2 years old. all this year she is the one who raised her grandson not knowing the whereabouts of the mother.

On 28/07/2024 Ma Mogapi started to have a problem with her grandson who doesn’t hear or speak. her grandson started behaving weirdly he didn’t come back home for days not informing his grandma about his whereabouts.

Ma Mogapi worrying about his grandson will go around looking for her grandson and call the police to report missing and seek help from the neighbors.

The problem started when her grandson’s social money was cut off because of his age She tried to talk to her grandson explaining about the situation and she wouldn’t be able to do some things for him because they don’t have income.

The reason that the money was cut off is because of the age of the grandson and he doesn’t have identity documents at the home affairs they want his mother because they are using the same surname to come and take ID for her child.

I spoke to the neighbors about Ma Mogapi’s situation and they also told me that they have been going up and down with Ma Mogapi. they tried to show the grandson and talk some sense to him.

Ma Mogami would like the government’s intervention in a situation like this especially for people living with a disability because she is not working and they depend on social grant money. They need to take care of their children and buy them clothes and food. The government should come up with a strategy to deal with the problem of disabled children reaching 18 years old and help them.