Dream - House Workshop for the Blind
Blinds in Pretoria

DreamHouse Workshop for the Blind and disabled, is an organisation whose mission is to create employment opportunities for Blind, Disabled and Unskilled and Underprivileged Persons of the Community.Our Slogan “Your dream is our vision” Means: We will create your DreamHouse and you will contribute to our dream for employment and prosperity.We manufacture: Top Quality Cane Furniture and Baskets.

The Fertilizer sticks are manufactured, packed, sealed and shipped for the export market. Our aim is to give people a renewed purpose in life whilst earning a living. The Organisation is managed by a Voluntary Board of Directors who freely gives their knowledge, expertise and time as a token of care and gratitude. The Managing Director of the Company has 44 years’ experience, a person who dedicated her life to the cause through trials and tribulations and has, with her team, built the organisation to what it is today. The main purpose of the Pretoria Workshop for the Blind is to economically empower people with disabilities and the unskilled. This is done by training people and providing them with a job opportunity in one of the companies. Since this is a work place and not a care centre, the employees are expected to make their own transport arrangements to get to work every day. This fosters a sense of responsibility towards the job and shows equal respect for the persons with disabilities. The organisation is keen to show society what people with disabilities can achieve if given the opportunity. It is thus important that the quality of products is on par with or higher than that produced by mainstream businesses. Management believes that this is a more sustainable way of impacting on the lives of the employees and their families. The Social enterprise also launched a profit-sharing scheme for staff in order to promote a sense of ownership in the company. The extruding of fertilizer sticks for pot plants which are packaged, sealed, boxed and exported to Europe. The Workshop owns the property and equipment, is responsible for all the overheads and employs all the staff. It also provides a full admin service to the taxable company in return for a management fee. The Social enterprise’s income is made up of sales, subsidies, donations and management fees. The taxable company pays its own production costs, wages and any other direct costs. All profits from the latter are donated to the Workshop, after tax, to cover the costs of overheads. The manufacturing of blisters as well as assembling and packaging of components for various clients. The Workshop obtained a Shrink Wrapping tunnel which creates opportunities for new contracts as well as an added service to existing customers. We are in the process of purchasing a labelling machine, making it possible to render a service and savings to our current customers and simultaneously offering this opportunity for new clients. There is an opportunity for the Workshop to become a partner in a pyrolysis project, which can be very beneficial to the organisation. The Workshop makes use of an agent who is constantly searching for new contracts on our behalf. The product will be exported to Europe together with the chemical sticks. There is a client in Holland who is ready to place the first order as soon as the ground work is done. He is also expecting this market to grow as it is in line with international Organic markets. We will have follow up reports on the above as time frames are not possible at present.