Wenakker Lydenburg (Lydenburg, South Africa)

 boarding house, special needs education

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Wenakker is a residential facility for the care of 250 intellectually disabled adults in Lydenburg Mpumalanga.
Established in Oct. 1969 by 6 concerned parents and affiliated to the South African Federation for Mental Health.
The profoundly, old and severely disabled are cared for and stimulated in a safe and secure environment.
It's a non profit organisation (NPO. 009 224) and depends on government subsidies, family contributions and fundraising.
At the centre we occupy the residents with normal house chores, creativity centre and recreation activities.

The centre has 10 houses with a live in housemother who take care of their needs.
In our High Care Unit we care for 110 profoundly intellectually disabled adults, with 24/7 nursing staff.
Here we provide sensory stimulation combined with creativity in a loving and caring environment.

THE HISTORY OF WENAKKER

Bishop Charles JolivetLoreto CrestWenakker opened its doors on the 7th of October 1969
in the then defunkt Loreto Catholic Convent. The Loreto Convent was built in 1893 by the
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose members were/are commonly known as
Sisters of Loreto. In 1877 Bishop Charles Jolivet found that a large number of Catholics in
the area of Lydenburg was in need of a sanctuary. The Bishop managed to aquire the piece
of land where the convent was later built.

On the 11th of February the first pioneer nuns left Pretoria via ox-wagon. Amongst them being
SM Teresa Colohan, SM Berchmans Boyhan, SM Ignatius Connel, SM Aloysius Tuohy and SM
Evangelist O'Connor. It was reported that the journey was made difficult by heavy rains and
flooded rivers and it took them six weeks to reach Lydenburg on 25 March 1893. Today we are
fortunate enough to make this very trip in less than 4 hours by motorcar.

During the years 1924 to 1925 platinum mines were opened near Lydenburg
and the Convent was inundated with applications for would-be boarders. According
to records about 150 boarders attended. After closing of the mines people moved
away and the number of pupils declined rapidly.

As the number of vocations in the Institute showed a marked decline throughout
the world, it was decided to close the Lydenburg Convent and to transfer the
personnel to other centers. Loreto Convent was officially closed in 1969.

Many old Lydenburgers such as the McGees, Donovans, Quilans, etc
was well as pupils from Sabie, Pilgrims Rest, Baberton, etc received their
education at the Convent.

The building and property was sold in 1971 to the Eastern Transvaal Society
for the Care of Mentally Retarded (Wenakker) to be used as a training center.

(Above article condensed from the original article written by E Judson, as
published in the Lydenburg News, 23 October 1981)