Every afternoon at about 5pm a red van stops next to an open piece of land in Masoyi near the Kruger Park.

A woman gets out and looks around, sometimes staring at the piece of land, other days “shoo-ing people who have erected shacks overnight”.

Behind this piece of land lies a dream. “I must dream, I must’€¦,” Lucy Ngobeni whispers.

Her dream is not lavish or grandiose. “I want to build a centre for my disabled children. There are 156 of them,” she says.

Ngobeni, a health promoter in Masoyi near White River has a “soft spot” for disabled children. Her official job involves educating rural people on basic health matters, but in the course of her work she became aware of the plight of disabled children in her community.

“I want them to have a place where they can come during the day, where I can train the parents to stimulate their children. Later I may want to erect facilities offering some form of boarding for some of the children,” says Ngobeni, who received the land from her elderly mother.

“My mother used to plough this land and plant crops on it, but she is now too old. One day I asked her for the land and she didn’€™t even think twice before agreeing,” Ngobeni says.

With the assistance of the local Rotary branch, Ngobeni’€™s dream may just come true.

Rhodes Abell from the White River Rotary Club indicated that about R70 000 had been raised so far towards Ngobeni’€™s “dream centre”.

“These funds are available, but we are in the process of registering a Section 21 company before the money can be made available,” says Abell.

He said a further R150 000 could possibly be sourced from the United States.

One of Ngobeni’€™s favourite children, is Pretty Malupi, and 11-year-old girl who was born deaf, blind and mute.

“She smells it’€™s me. She will only sit with me and her parents,” says Ngobeni, who cradles the youngster on her lap, managing to elicit a smile from Pretty when she tickles her.

“It is difficult and frustrating because I can’€™t do anything for her,” says Pretty’€™s mother, Paulina.

“She sleeps most of the time and only really wakes up to eat.”

But Pretty is one of the lucky few as many other women and their disabled children are abandoned by the father because of the stigma attached to having a disabled child.

These children need constant supervision making it difficult for the mother to work. Some children are carried on their mothers’€™ backs as they work in the vegetable gardens, often their only source of food.

Ngobeni discovered a deaf and mute 12-year-old child in the back room of a shack. She had spent her entire life in the room.

“They are so special and there is nowhere else for them to go. Schools won’€™t take them,” says Ngobeni.

Ngobeni was also the founder of the Masoyi home based care project, a successful model that is being replicated across the country.

Anyone wishing to contact Ngobeni, can reach her on 082-477-0726.