Rosecourt Foundation
Supported Accommodation for Mentally Disabled Jewish Adults

25 Breda Street | Gardens Cape | Cape Town | 8001
Contact: Mandy Edison
Phone: 021-465-4200
Rosecourt Foundation is made up of three group homes, Rosecourt House, Rosecourt Terrace and Vriende House. Our Group Homes provide supported accommodation for 26 Jewish adults with special needs, either intellectual disability and/or psychiatric illness.
Our residents have the opportunity to develop independence, life skills, and to enjoy social contact with their peers. This “home from home” offers them a place to experience the joy of living in a caring, nurturing and beautiful environment, and adds value to their daily lives. The homes are kosher and the residents get to celebrate all the festive holidays.
Our History
Rosecourt Foundation formerly Roseccourt/Vriende consists of three houses: Rosecourt House, opened in 1986 provides accommodation for 10 residents. Vriende House, opened in 2000 provides accommodation for 8 residents. Rosecourt Terrace opened in March 2010 provides accommodation for 8 residents.

Brent Meersman
People with mental illness and disability – or as current politically correct speech has it, the intellectually challenged – suffer an enormous amount of discrimination and isolation. Broader society is impatient, defensive, usually awkward, and often hostile if not openly vindictive towards them. Meanwhile 99% of what irks the world is perpetrated by those ostensibly of sound mind. Fortunately, under our constitution, people with special needs qualify for “disability grants” (over one million South Africans currently receive permanent disability grants). But that doesn’t change the need for a sense of self-worth, to enjoy meaningful work, to have at once some independence and yet the feeling that one belongs to society. 20 Breda Street is an old mansion. It was a hostel for young women and home to some of the Jewish refugees who came on the S.S. Stuttgart in October 1936. The house has remained to serve the Jewish community and today it houses the workshops for Astra, a sheltered employment centre. Started in 1950 with one person, there are now 65 people working here, all with special needs. Director Merle Furman took me on a tour. Upstairs and downstairs there are various work rooms, one with several magnificently old wooden looms, still in use, producing quality work. A soft baby blanket is in the making according to pattern and design by its operator. There are sewing rooms, rag doll manufacturing and a carpentry shop making doll houses. One fellow collects stamps from envelopes to sell to philatelist dealers for the centre. I notice a page of six-cent Ugandan stamps with George the Fifth’s head on them.

