Disability Workshop Development Enterprise PROFILE

DWDE was established in the Western Cape Province in March 2007 after a research study conducted with the protective workshops and Self-Help groups of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) found that there was an urgent need for a Co-ordinating Umbrella Body to assist the sector with their challenges. Currently there are 43 protective workshops in the Western Cape that fall under the umbrella of DWDE.

The aim of DWDE is to contribute towards poverty alleviation amongst the most vulnerable sectors of persons with disabilities including the youth, women, the unskilled and semi-skilled, the aged and those with severe physical and mental disabilities. The mission of DWDE is to facilitate strategic and economic transformation within the protective workshops and self-help groups of PWDs in the Western Cape. The organisation is committed to providing a service that is innovative as well as responsive to the issue of disability equity, maintaining world class standards of excellence. DWDE programmes are dynamic and the organisation strives to continue to find ways to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable sector of South Africans with disabilities.

DWDE can be considered as a very unique organisation that forms the port of call for linking economic opportunities and service providers with the disability sector. These linkages have in the past provided various opportunities to the protective workshops that fall under the mandate of DWDE. One such example is the relationship that DWDE have developed with Disabled People’s Organisations, Denmark, a Danish organisation that shares the vision of inclusion of the disability sector in the economy and society.

DWDE Services

• Enterprise Development Services
• Disability Enterprise Support Services
• Facilitation of Business Linkages
• Facilitation of Procurement Opportunities
• Skills Development Opportunities
• Employment Opportunitites
• Disability Consulting Services