Rotaract Klerksdorp Shines a Light on Local Changemakers

Karen Scheepers
7 hours ago
5 min read

October is Economic & Community Development Month, and the Rotaract Club of Klerksdorp is celebrating the people and organisations who keep our city’s social fabric strong. Rather than simply posting tributes, Rotaract is putting practical help front and centre, connecting needs to givers, neighbours to resources, and everyday goodwill to the places where it can change a life. This feature is the first in a series spotlighting local partners who are building dignity, safety, and opportunity across Klerksdorp and the wider North West Province.

Klerksdorp is a place of grit and heart. We feel it at school sports days, community clean-ups, church bake sales, and small businesses serving customers by name. Rotaract Klerksdorp lives inside that spirit. As a youth-led service organisation affiliated with Rotary, the club mobilises volunteers, amplifies trusted charities, and turns compassion into action. This October, Rotaract highlights three organisations, Daphne Lee Centre, SAVF Rethabile Children’s Home, and RATA Social Services, whose steady, local work deserves both recognition and support.

Image: Rotaract Klerksdorp — Image: **Rotaract Klerksdorp**

Daphne Lee Centre: A Homely Place of Safety for Adults with Disabilities

Founded on 3 April 1981 by Sr. Daphne Lee, the Daphne Lee Centre began with a simple, radical belief: adults with physical or mental challenges deserve not just care, but community. Today, that belief is lived out in warm, homelike routines, socialisation, creative activities, and mental stimulation that enrich daily life and protect dignity.

The centre is known for intergenerational programmes and community events where residents are not on the margins; they’re at the centre. Staff and volunteers nurture independence while cultivating a sense of belonging. In recent months, the centre has also embarked on room upgrades and renovations to improve comfort and accessibility, work that matters deeply when a room is not only a bedroom, but a refuge.

How you can help Daphne Lee Centre

Donate essentials: Curtains, bedding, and other room comforts go a long way toward creating a homely environment.
Financial contributions: Even small monthly amounts sustain renovations, programmes, and daily operations.
Get in touch: 018 462 4366 | admin@daphneleecentre.co.za

When you support Daphne Lee Centre, you are not just meeting needs; you’re affirming that adults with disabilities deserve vibrant, connected lives. That message echoes well beyond one facility’s walls.

SAVF Rethabile Children’s Home: Stability and Care for North West’s Children

SAVF Rethabile Children’s Home, established in 1953 as the first SAVF Children’s Home, provides round-the-clock, comprehensive care to 150 children across the North West Province. Their work is as broad as it is tender: primary healthcare, therapeutic support, and development programmes designed to build confidence, nurture resilience, and open doors to a healthier future.

Children arrive at Rethabile with stories that would stop most adults in their tracks. What they find is dependable routine, professional support, and people who refuse to let a hard beginning decide the rest of the story. The team works closely with social workers, teachers, and medical professionals so that care is holistic, dignified, and safe.

Like many welfare organisations, Rethabile has felt the shock of recent funding cuts by the North West Department of Social Development. Essential services are at risk just as the need remains high. In moments like these, community support isn’t optional, it’s decisive.

How you can help SAVF Rethabile

Donate funds or goods: Contributions keep meals served, medical appointments met, and therapeutic work on track.
Partner your business or service club: Sustained support, monthly or quarterly, helps Rethabile plan confidently.
Enquiries and support: 018 464 1888 | rethabileCYCC.reception@savf.co.za

A safe bed, a guided homework session, a trusted adult checking in, these are ordinary acts with extraordinary consequences. Your support helps transform crisis into stability for children who deserve nothing less.

RATA Social Services: Strengthening Families, Protecting the Vulnerable

For 76 years, since 1948, RATA Social Services has stood beside families through the hardest chapters. Working across Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West, RATA provides counselling, parenting programmes, adoption services, and specialised support for the elderly, abused women, and people with disabilities. In the past year alone, more than 54,000 people benefited from RATA’s interventions.

RATA’s footprint is wide because family challenges are complex, addiction, neglect, trauma, and poverty often converge. Skilled social workers, community partners, and volunteers help families stabilise, heal, and rebuild. From emergency assistance to long-term casework, the organisation meets people where they are, without judgement.

RATA, too, is confronting the reality of funding cuts by the North West Department of Social Development, with a direct impact on counselling hours, outreach, and protective services. At stake is not just programming, it’s the safety net that catches people before a crisis becomes catastrophe.

How you can help RATA Social Services

Donate online: https://pay.yoco.com/rata-social-services-npc
Offer corporate support: Sponsorships, staff volunteer days, and in-kind services extend RATA’s reach.
Contact the local office: 018 462 1519 | klerksdorp@rata.org.za

When communities rally around RATA, they help ensure that abuse does not go unchallenged, that parents get tools to succeed, and that vulnerable neighbours are never left to struggle alone.

Why Rotaract Is Focusing on Economic & Community Development

Economic development is not only about jobs and infrastructure; it’s about the human conditions that make opportunity possible: safety, health, education, stable families, and accessible care. The organisations above invest in those conditions every day. Rotaract Klerksdorp’s October focus is a practical blueprint for development: support the caregivers, stabilise the home, and you stabilise the community.

Rotaract’s role is part amplifier, part matchmaker. The club uses its network to:

Broadcast needs clearly so citizens and businesses can respond quickly and meaningfully.
Coordinate volunteers for drives, makeovers, and ongoing support.
Build partnerships between service clubs, churches, schools, and companies so help is sustainable.
Highlight dignity, ensuring the people served are seen as neighbours with strengths, not numbers in a report.

This month also recognises that many charities are under severe financial pressure. Fixed costs rise, public funding tightens, and demand grows. That reality can feel daunting, until we remember how far local generosity can go. A Saturday spent painting a room at Daphne Lee Centre. A debit order to Rethabile that covers toiletries for a dormitory. A workplace fundraiser that underwrites RATA’s counselling sessions for survivors. None of it is theoretical; all of it is immediate, tangible relief.

Final thought

Klerksdorp’s story is written by the people who show up for one another. This October, Rotaract Klerksdorp is inviting all of us to pick up the pen. Whether you give, volunteer, or simply pass the word along, you’re part of a chain of kindness that strengthens our city. The heroes featured here, residents with disabilities finding joy in community, children growing in safety and hope, families rebuilding after hardship, are not far away. They are our neighbours. Let’s keep showing up for them.

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