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As a woman raising women and being married to a husband who believes I can do anything; our family are always aware of the gender inequality in society.

Then I am aware of the inequality in how people with disabilities are treated.

When you mix all that together, I am living the truth of the inequality against mothers like me. Women who are expected to be Super Woman in all areas of our lives while maintaining an income.

Currently I am struggling to find the right care for Savannah while I maintain a job. I have to work so we can provide everything our family needs. The notion of giving it all up and staying at home to take care of her full time sounds so heroic to many people but it is also folly for many families like us. Medicine and therapy costs us quite a lot of our income every month. We pay above medical aid rates for doctors and medical aid doesn’t cover everything that Savannah needs. Now that she is over twenty one years old, we are charged more by our medical aid company.

Please note that we live in South Africa and our government only provides a minimum social grant for people with disabilities that in our case will only cover the cost of one of Savannah’s medicines. We do not have suitable social programmes to assist families like ours in our country and when they do exist; corruption is rife.

So long story short… I have to work. And while my employers are the exception who are flexible and accommodating, being a mother to a child with a disability means I can’t plan for a career because I don’t know what bend Savannah’s life will take. I am mom… I have to be there for all of those bends.

If you believe in equality and in raising the stature of women in society, then please read this article by Sue Robins and add mothers like us to your cause.

We cannot only take care off a few demographics of women in society and leave the rest behind. A woman’s fight is every WOMEN’s fight.

We are the mothers who feminism – and the world – has left behind.

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