WORTHY CHARITY IS TO BENEFIT

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32296, 14 May 1970, Page 10

WORTHY CHARITY IS TO BENEFIT

In Canterbury the proceeds from the “Pick Miss New Zealand Contest” will go towards the funds for the new building for the Canterbury Sheltered Workshop Association which are being sought by the Canterbury branches of Round Table. The sum aimed for is $30,000.

The primary need was for the group of needy over 16 years of age whose I.Q. was over 50 and who have therefore been excluded from satisfactory Government assistance, said a representative of Round Table, Mr C. M. Sisson. It is true that the Government has recently recognised the need of this group: this official recognition shows that general support is warranted, said Mr Sisson. Once there were only six young men and women at the Canterbury Sheltered Workshop.

Today about 70 attend the workshop. Some are fulltime trainees, others parttime. Several travel considerable distances, said Miss C. E. Robinson, president of the Canterbury Sheltered Workshop Association. Needs Vary “More than 250 have attended the workshop and 85 have been placed in employment,” she continued. “Their needs have varied according to their physical, intellectual or emotional conditions. “Many have multiple handicaps, some of which have been the result of unhappy experiences at home or at school, and of years of frustration and failure.” Multi-handicapped people were formerly too often hidden from notice because of public attitudes. They were protected by their families but were given little chance to develop as members of the community. Improvements Made “Aggravation of the problem,” said Mr Peter Nicholson, president of the Round Tables of New Zealand, “has been the result of inadequate facilities available to cope with the numbers requiring help.” But improvements are being made. Mr Nicholson said the national association of Round Tables became interested in the needs of the multi-bandicapped in 1968. “Members want to make the public aware that the multi-handicapped exist and secondly that they are the responsibility of us all as fellow citizens,” he said.

The Sheltered Workshop! is an organisation with I limited means but, said Mr I Nicholson, “has done much! to provide for the multi- 1 handicapped a basic require- 1 ment of the human spirit! “The realisation that how- 1 ever great one’s handicap! may be, it is still possible! not only to feel useful to! society, but to be so in] reality,” he said. The Canterbury branches] of Round Tables get some] financial payment from each | entry form filled in—so] , cents acompanies each sub-] mitted entry. Capping Week ’■ Gifts from the public dur-] ■ ing the University of Can-| J terbury’s Capping Week! 1 will go toward furnishing] the new building. Mr A Blair, chairman of] the Canterbury area of I a Round Table, said: | 1 “The service that the Can-] i- terbury Sheltered Work-] shops render to the com-] 1 munity make this project a] l ( very worthy one. ’ “The premises in which they work and train the '• handicapped do not allow e for full potential to be V achieved and the ret establishment of the works' shops in a larger and modern building is urgent. ® “The association of Round e Table with the Canterbury y

Sheltered Workshops is by no means new. Help for a building was given by Christchurch North Round Table No. 4 in 1962. Last year the same Table gave them a film projector. The pictures on the right I I show activity at the work- I r shop.