The Chair’s Report reflects a year of resilience, gratitude, and meaningful progress for Oasis, despite the deep loss of our beloved President, Rosemary de Waal.

The period saw strengthened governance, renewed staffing capacity, vital donor-funded improvements to our transport fleet and properties, expanded partnerships, and significant developments such as wage subsidies for 110 workshop workers.

Our day centres, houses, adult groups and protective workshops all continued to advance opportunities and dignity for people with intellectual disabilities, thanks to the unwavering dedication of our staff, volunteers, donors, and partners.

Together, we move forward with renewed purpose as we continue building hope, opportunity, and a more inclusive community for all.

Click here to read the Full Annual Report 2024/2025 

Click here to view the Annual Financial Statements

It is with great sorrow I inform you that Rosemary de Waal, our much loved and respected Honorary President and long-standing member of the Oasis Association Board of Management, passed away on Tuesday 28 January 2025.  On behalf of the Oasis community, I send condolences to her family, circle of friends and all who worked with her.

Rosemary’s work with Oasis has left a considerable legacy in the field of intellectual disability.  Almost four decades ago, she played a key role as a social worker at an Oasis centre in Elsies River. As a volunteer in subsequent years, she served on numerous Oasis committees and was involved in developing day care centres in Ravensmead and Delft; group homes in Kenwyn, Claremont and Ruyterwacht and the current protective workshop in Elsies River.

Her unswerving loyalty to people with intellectual disability is best illustrated by many years of serving on the Board. She held various offices – Chair, Vice-chair, Trustee and signatory.  At the time of Rosemary’s passing, she was a member of the Board elected sub- committee working on the housing needs of ageing residents.

Rosemary was a volunteer extraordinaire. Oasis wasn’t the only beneficiary of her generosity, which to name some, embraced education, social housing, early childhood development, and intellectual disability. She invested resources, unusual time commitments and broad expertise in contributing to the development of sustainable, caring environments. In these contexts, her work was characterized by empathy, hope, humility and a commitment to ensuring the rights and dignity of vulnerable people.

She was an unassuming, quiet hero, who made an immeasurable contribution to improving the lives of so many.

 

Rosemary was also a valued colleague, mentor and friend to me. Over the years, we often met in my office garden, drinking copious cups of coffee and laughing at ourselves while we tried to solve the imponderables that life presented to us.

She had a lovely sense of humour, a sharp mind which would cut to the chase and above all, a heart which cared deeply for others.

Gail Bester
Executive Director

 

 

PRESS RELEASE 

Global Recycling Foundation        www.globalrecyclingfoundation.org

 

Global Recycling Foundation announces #RecyclingHeroes of Global Recycling Day 2022     

London, March 18, 2022

 

Immediate release – The Global Recycling Foundation today announces the 10 winners of their Recycling Heroes 2022 award marking Global Recycling Day 18th. March.

The winners of $ 1000 each are drawn from individuals and business leaders, sole traders, and multinationals who despite continuing hardships have managed to sustain their efforts to promote the value of recycling.

Ranjit Baxi, Founding President of the Global Recycling Foundation, said: “The world has been enduring exceptionally difficult times and we are delighted to have received so many remarkable entries from around the world.

“Indeed, to recognise the efforts made by a large number of start-ups despite two years of the Coronavirus pandemic, GRF has decided to make 4 additional awards of $250 each.”

 

The winners:

Schuler Rohstoff GmbH, Germany – Each year recycle about 280,000 tons of scrap –and are particularly proud that they can inspire so many women for our love of scrap. Half of the administrative staff are women empowering women and promoting their interest in the Recycling industry.

Una Mano per la Scuola, Italy – This committee made by parents of students from 6th to 14th years old (students of primary and secondary schools in Inveruno, Milan province, in Italy) is raising awareness on recycling & sustainability matters by organizing, with the support of the Municipality of Inveruno, for students to collect waste in the “Trash Challenge” for recycling as well as promoting planting of Trees by the students.

Vintz Plastic, Kenya – We are the leading plastic recycling company in Kenya recycling at least 25 tonnes of plastic waste per day. Our business model is unique because we promote circular manufacturing economy by making storage tanks and household items using the recycled plastics as the raw material. We place a strong emphasis of working with and training women in the process of collecting and sorting plastic.

Baby On The Move, New Zealand – An innovative effort to divert expired child restraints from going to landfill. Instead, together have created a stewardship solution of recycling car seat thereby reducing the waste which would otherwise be landfilled.

Ecocykle Limited, Nigeria – a youth-led social enterprise that promotes environmental sustainability, ecosystem restoration, the circular economy, and improved public health by providing effective waste management services to low-income communities who lack sustainable waste management options. Over the last two years, the company has overseen the training of more than 2000 young men and women on how to start their own waste recycling enterprises.

 

Oasis Association, South Africa – since 1952, the organisation has grown to support over 566 intellectually disabled beneficiaries. The organisations activities are all supported through the Recycling and thrift initiatives that fund 56% of Oasis annual income providing sustainable employment in recycling.

 

Brewster Bros, Scotland, UK – a family business centred on the principles of the circular economy turning CDE (concrete, demolition and excavating waste) into quality recycled products which can be sold back into the construction industries, diverting tons of waste from landfill and to create recycled product.

RecycleForce, Indiana, USA – is committed to reducing crime through employment and job training, while improving the environment through (WEE) waste electronics recycling. Since 2006, RecycleForce has safely recycled more than 65 million pounds of electronic waste while providing environmental job training to thousands.

Green Club of Lubanga Primary School, Zambia – Schoolchildren in the Green Club are promoting recycling by collecting waste drink bottles to make litter bins for keeping the school clean. One of the biggest environmental issues in schools is litter. The Green Club members collect used drink bottles littered around the school and community and use them for their Green and Clean school project.

Norwegian Refugee Council, Norway – Working in Bangladesh, to address the existing problem of plastic pollution in refugee camps, thus paving a way for more efficient solid waste management. NRC initiated Producing Shelter Materials from Recycled Plastic project in partnership with Field Ready to recycle the waste plastics produced by the Rohingya refugee community and surrounding host community people, to transform them into safe and sustainable shelter protection products

 

The four additional start-up award winners are:

Japheth Sunday, Nigeria – Japheth is reducing environmental pollution in the community with his JETSAR project by converting biowaste to electrical energy that powers the house including appliances, thus providing one answer to meet renewable energy needs in the country.

Precious Plastic, India – Precious Plastic is running a ragpicker co-operative. In this they buy plastic waste from ragpickers. This waste is recycled into plastic granules and sold to plastic product manufacturers. Profits from the sale of granules are distributed equally among the ragpickers helping the local economy.

Circular Shield, Slovenia – supporting sorted collection and recycling of used beverage cardboards, and creating a local, functioning model of circular economy as we return paper products made of regenerated cellulose.

Çelebi KALKAN, Turkey -. Celebi, a primary school teacher has been working on STEM education for sustainable development purposes since 2015. She believes in promoting educational awareness and sustainable development goals to support present and future generations who must be equipped not only with technical knowledge and skills, but also with a deeper understanding of the values needed to create a peaceful and sustainable future.

 

 

For further information contact Global Recycling Foundation team:

press@globalrecyclingfoundation.org

Ranjit Baxi +447860525159 www.globalrecyclingday.com

 

About the Global Recycling Foundation

The Global Recycling Foundation supports the promotion of recycling, and the recycling industry, across the world to showcase its vital role in preserving the future of the planet. It will promote Global Recycling Day as well as other educational programmes, awareness projects and innovation initiatives which focus on the sustainable and inclusive development of recycling.

RECYCLING REMAINS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. PINELANDS AND ELSIES RIVER REMAIN CLOSED.

Come and browse all your favourites.

New shops, new areas! We have spread the shop into 3 areas to enable social distancing:

• Clothing at Lee Road Gate.
• Bric-a-brac, technical goods, and art in the shop.
• Books and furniture at recycling drop-off.

We look forward to welcoming you.

 

We are fiercely guarding the safety of our customers and staff and everyone will be required to adhere to our regulations (which are laid down for us by Departments of Labour and Social Development)

• • No mask = No entry
  • No sit down drinks or eats yet!
  • Screening stations with temperatures and questions, names and cell numbers (The latter for contact tracing – laid down for us)
  • Sanitising of hands
  • Strict adherence to social distancing
  • No fitting rooms or public toilets
  • Limited numbers in each shopping area
  • Limited time for customers
  • Pay for purchases in each area at each area pay point
  • Lee Road gate – only entry to clothing/shoes/bags
  • Imam Haron gate – entry to other areas but not clothing

Address: Corner Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont

Organisations helping Cape Town’s disabled people have paid tribute to Pinelands resident Vivienne van der Merwe, who has retired from the Western Cape Network on Disability at the age of 80.

Ms Van der Merwe spent 20 years with the network, and before that she worked for the Oasis Association – also for 20 years.

Many of those who honoured her in Salt River last Friday, spoke about the important role she had played for the disabled.

Vincent Daniels, from the Cape Town Society for the Blind, said Ms Van der Merwe’s work had a lot to do with her son, Jacque van der Merwe, 49, who has an intellectual disability.

Ms Van der Merwe approached Oasis when Jacque was 4, and the association – which was founded in 1952 as a school for children with intellectual disabilities – helped to improve his condition by the time he was in his 20s.

Van der Merwe then joined Oasis’s staff in 1978 as transport director, which saw her teaching disabled people how to use public transport.

After retiring from Oasis at the age of 60, she joined the Western Cape Network on Disability – an umbrella body for several organisations, including the Cape Town Society for the Blind, Cape Mental Health, and the Institute for the Promotion of Disabled Manpower.

Apart from being very good at taking minutes, she helped the disabled with transport-related challenges and was very vocal about the need to build homes for disabled people, who could be left in vulnerable circumstances once their parents died.

 

“Vivienne had made a significant contribution to this sector due to the continuity of her service and her passion, which has been amazing after all the years,” said Tessa Wood, from the Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability.

 

Sandra Ambrose, from the Disabled Children’s Action Group, said Ms Van der Merwe was a woman of integrity and took time to get to know people.

Cleone Jordan, from the Institute for the Promotion of Disabled Manpower, described her as “very welcoming, very engaging in her approach”.

Mr Daniels, who has had a close working relationship with Ms Van der Merwe, said the network had started on the back of a lot of hard work and she had “always been the person to keep the bits and pieces together”.

Ms Van der Merwe, who is an honorary vice-president of the Oasis Association, said she planned to catch up on her reading during her retirement.

by WESLEY FORD

The Oasis Association in Cape Town was the first winner of the Mail & Guardian‘s Greening the Future award for non-profit organisations in 2003. Over the past decade, the organisation has moved mountains — and not just of trash — to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are empowered.

Oasis is proof that green success stories, which highlight the reduction of people’s effect on the environment, are also about human development. The organisation employs people with intellectual disabilities on recycling projects. Its stated mission is “to enable persons with intellectual disability to realise their fullest potential at each stage of their development, and thereby become as independent and productive as possible within the community“. Moderate, mild, severe or profound intellectual disabilities affect about 3% of all people worldwide.

Oasis started in 1952 when a group of parents found a solution to the problem of their children being excluded from mainstream society by starting their own school — an oasis — for children with intellectual disabilities. Today the organisation provides employment opportunities, skills development training, daycare centres and residential homes for more than 450 people in the greater Cape Town area. In 2003, the Greening the Future judges praised Oasis as “a special and unique project with a holistic approach to integrating social concerns and environmental issues”. “It has explored the question of recycling and reuse of resources very efficiently, even venturing into areas where no one else bothered to go,” the judges said at the time.

The Oasis workforce consists of people with various intellectual disabilities who are employed in recycling and waste management projects that generate income for the association and contribute to its self-sustainability. Executive director Gail Bester says Oasis has seen “a lot of growth” since winning the Greening the Future award 10 years ago. “This is obvious not only from our statistical information, but also the qualitative enhancement both to Oasis’s projects and the work lives of people with intellectual disability.” In 2003 the organisation processed between 60 and 78 tonnes of mixed recyclable waste a month, generating an annual turnover of R166 202. By the end of the 2011-2012 financial year it was processing more than 203 tonnes of recycling a month, which, together with two shops it has opened, yielded a trading income of more than R4-million. In November 2003, just months after winning Greening the Future, Oasis was awarded a tender to manage Old Mutual’s waste and recycling at the company’s head office in Pinelands. “We currently have 362 intellectually disabled workers who are hard at work on three recycling projects and who, together with the shops, generated 47.3% of our income at the end of the last financial year,” says Bester. “Our recycling project has won more national and international awards over the years. As a result, it is probably true to say that today we are better known for our recycling efforts rather than for the fact that we are leaders in the disability field.”

As word spread about its recycling project, the Western Cape department of environmental affairs and development planning asked it to present a best-practice model to more than 300 delegates at the Cape Town waste minimisation summit in 2010. Bester says Oasis has come up with a “win-win situation for all” and that it is a working model of the triple bottom line in sustainability: “We meet a social need by providing intellectually disabled adults with employment, which creates income for the workers and the organisation. And we provide an easy solution for Cape Town residents in terms of disposing of their recyclable waste, resulting in a very significant saving of landfill space.” Desiree Behr, the donor development manager at Oasis, says the company launched various other income-generating projects over the years because “funding is always a major issue for non-governmental organisations”. “Although we raised 55.5% of our income last year through our trading activities and investments, we are still dependent on donors to fund the more welfare-focused aspects of our services, such as day centres and residential facilities,” says Behr. “State subsidies accounted for 28.5% of our income last year, but we had to raise the rest through fundraising events and appeals to corporate donors, trusts and foundations, and individuals.”

Two shops selling recycled bric-a-brac and books were opened in Claremont and Pinelands, generating at least R2-million last year. Oasis now also runs a bakery and tea garden in Claremont to earn cash. The bakery “initially focused on producing bread for our daily feeding scheme for the poor. But the tantalising aroma of fresh, hot bread and the spread of word-of-mouth advertising led to requests from members of the public for the bread to be made available to them too,” says Behr. Oasis was voted a Greening the Future winner because of its “comprehensive sustainability, environmental innovation and social involvement”.

Ten years later, the evidence shows they were right.

Article initially appeared in the Mail and Guardian