BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Barrier Breakers (BB) is registered as a Section 21 company (Number 2003/006948/08 & NPO – Number 028-744-NPO) with Fundraising, PR, Marketing, Publishing & Related Disciplines as its core functions, but is presently operating as a division of the Association for the Physically Disabled – Greater Johannesburg. The Chief Executive Officer reports to a Steering Committee which has been appointed to oversee its activities by the Executive Committee of the APD.

BB works in collaboration with other organisations in the disability sector as well as schools and individuals in presenting national campaigns involving various initiatives that are based on the common theme common theme of improving the quality of life for people with disabilities (pwd’s) by breaking down social, employment, infrastructure and other barriers and building bridges between pwd’s and able-bodied South Africans of all ages..

VISION
To position Barrier Breakers as a leader within the NPO field and as the organisation which improves the quality of life of persons with physical disabilities in South Africa.

MISSION
To inspire present and future decision makers to recognise the existence of people with physical disabilities and their rights to access all facilities available to any South African within the normal boundaries of financial constraints and to give recognition to those who already do so. To mobilise every South African to speak out for and protect the human rights of people with physical disabilities.

INITIATIVES

· Prevention: Project aimed at the youth whereby they are taught about the importance of road safety; including being   responsible pedestrians.
· Sensitisation & Awareness: Fun programmes aimed at able bodied South Africans from pre-school to corporates.
· Accessibility Assessments: Aimed at improving the built-up environment for pwd’s.
· Reasonable Accommodation: Aimed at creating the correct working environment for pwd’s.
· Education: Training of employers and intended colleagues so that they know how to interact with pwd’s in the work place.
· BB Ratings: An ongoing project that raises funds through a process that gives recognition to organisations that have made an   effort to address infrastructure accessibility issues for pwd’s.
· Goodwill SMS Message & Balloon Campaign: Annual event to spread messages of goodwill over the country and establish a   world record for the number of virtual balloons released into cyber space.
· BB Festival: Annual event to bring together in a spirit of fun the disabled and non-disabled communities and to celebrate the   abilities of pwd’s.
· Change 4 Change: Event involving the collection of loose change in branded collection containers.
· Hero Hunt: Proposed annual event to recognise the disabled who have succeeded in areas other than sport ie business, arts,   education etc.

OBJECTIVES

· To improve the quality of life of pwd’s by removing barriers to life.
· To raise funds to maintain and expand services to pwd’s.
· To create jobs for pwd’s.
· To recognise companies that have made an effort to address accessibility issues.
· To raise awareness of the abilities of pwd’s.
· To raise awareness of the needs of pwd’s.
· To identify and recognise achievers in the disability sector.

SLOGAN

BB says: Don’t Just Legislate – Educate! Ignoring the rights of 4 million South Africans can not be justified in a country priding itself on one of the best Constitutions (and therefore also Bill of Rights) in the world. The appropriate legislation might be in place, but definitely not the appropriate attitude, with the result that people with physical disabilities are still invisible and/or inferior in the eyes of many South Africans. BB wants to address this issue in a constructive and meaningful way.