An Interview with Meghan Hourqeubie of Made for More SA
1. What are you passionate about and why?
I strongly believe in equal access to opportunities for all, especially for people with disabilities accessing the economy. I love seeing people’s potential come to light and being a part of that journey.
2. Can you tell us a bit about your background
I studied Occupational Therapy at UCT which is where my interest of working in the field of disability first emerged. However, after completing my Community Service, I moved out of OT into social entrepreneurship, seeing this as a better opportunity to affect macro social change. I completed a certificate in Social Entrepreneurship at GIBS in 2017. This course was a catalyst in my move back into the disability space. I joined the Made for More team in 2019 when I moved to Durban.
3. What kind of obstacles have you faced in your organisation?
Made for More runs weekly adaptive sports programmes at schools and homes for people with disabilities. The onset of COVID-19 resulted in a complete halt of our in-person programmes from mid-March. As of December, we have only been able to resume our in-person programmes at one school. However, we pivoted to producing online content which has extended our reach to a global audience. We’ve also produced monthly exercise therapy and mental health activity booklets that approximately 65 families have been receiving since April.
A more general obstacle that we face is capacity. There always seems to be too much to do with not always the expertise needed to do it. However, we’ve learnt that our network is powerful and often holds the answers we need so we reach out to others for assistance whenever we can. We’d love to have a bigger team with a greater skill set and are trusting that we’ll be able to grow in the near future.
4. What are some of the lessons you have learnt so far?
As a team, we are stronger together. The Made for More team has various skill sets and leaning into our teams strengths is how we achieve all that we do.
We are more agile than we may think. Many organisations will probably have realised this as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our funders back us because they believe in who we are and not our stats.
5. How can people support you to take this initiative forward?
In 2020, we had the privilege of purchasing a piece of land in Amahlongwa, a rural community on KZN’s South Coast. We have big plans for this land to serve those in the Amahlongwa community, particularly people living with disabilities. On Giving Tuesday (1 December), we launched a fundraising campaign to raise the finance that we need for Phase 1 of developing our land. A great way to support this initiative is by contributing to the campaign on GivenGain and sharing our story within your networks.
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