At the beginning

Holy Family Care Centre started in May 2002, so it is still in the very early stages of development.

The need for this project came from the paediatrician at the major regional hospital, the Letaba Hospital. She had long expressed the need for a place where HIV/Aids babies and children, especially orphans, can receive on-going care once the intensive phase of their hospital treatment is completed.

They didn't have sufficient space in the hospitals to keep the children for long periods because of the ever-increasing numbers of patients.
Most of the children also had TB which involved 6 months of daily TB treatment.
Nowadays the children at the Centre return to the hospital for regular review and a further supply of medicines. They continue to be monitored by the paediatrician .

Development

In the first two years of the project to date, we have received about 140 mothers and children. The ages of the children range from a few months to 13 years.

The Holy Family Care Centre is situated at the foot of the Drakensberg Moutains at Ofcolaco in the Limpopo province.
The property was chosen for the project because of its great natural beauty, which can help to provide peace and promote healing. The property originally belonged to an order of missionary priests who used it for the training of their students.
Such training is now done in an urban area and the property wasn’t used for about 10 years. The priests relinquished the property to the Catholic Diocese of Tzaneen with the proviso, that the international congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart administered it for the above HIV/Aids project.

We did not want to duplicate existing services that were operating satisfactorily. Rather we wanted to respond to needs that were not being met by other groups, or were not being met sufficiently because of the overwhelming numbers of people with the disease.
It seemed to us that orphaned children with HIV/Aids and abandoned mothers with the same disease needed priority help.
So that is the rationale that led to this project.

Most of the mothers we have had here have died but only about 10 children.
The medical care, good food and a happy supportive environment have done wonders for the children and have prolonged their lives in a way that we never thought possible when we began the project.
When a child is strong enough we send the child to the little local school nearby, so that they can feel part of a normal school environment. We have an excellent relationship with the little school and the Principal and staff are very supportive and really care for the children so they don’t overtax themselves.

We are also working with the local community – health and social workers as well as home-based carers - so that we can reach children at the village level who need the type of care we are offering.
We take the needy cases to the hospital and then have them referred back to us through the paediatrician so as to continue the present modus operandi because it works well.

Recent developments

In 2004 - 2005 the Centre has been chosen for the Antiretroviral project, stimulated by the Bishop's Conference. This project is meant to provide medical support to people suffering from AIDS /HIV. For this purpose a little clinic has been built at the Centre and one of the sisters is almost full time concerned managing it. This brings the opportunity for better medical care for the children at the Centre, but also for approximately 300 adults living in the wide neighbourhood of the Centre.

In 2007 we acquired formal registration by the government, a necessity taking in account the constant growth of the centre. At the moment (January 2008) we have 92 children living at the centre. This really exceeds the maximum we can take. Last January we replaced all the beds in one of the dormitories by double bunks to overcome the problem of two children sleeping in each bed.. At the moment we are planning for a new dormitory, which has become an urgent need. Happily some sponsors already agreed upon contribution for this project.

With this growth in numbers, Holy Family Care Centre has become a quite important employer for the villages in the area. Due to the government's land distribution program almost every farm in the neighbourhood has been abandoned and a lot people lost their job. At this moment we employ more than 30 staff members (most of them female) from the local communities by which we provide them with an income for their families. They take care of the children during day and night as well as in the weekends. They dress, cook, sweep, clean, wash, do the laundry, etc. Six men are employed as a driver or for maintenance tasks.

Education is going to be a major issue during the years ahead. Already one of the older boys is starting his driving lessons this year, being the first step in his education to be a traffic policeman. At present seven girls visit high school in different grades. Last year we started a "skills centre" creating space for children to do their homework and where they receive training to become familiar with the use of the computer.

As the children get older the number of them finishing primary school will grow. With the help of sponsors we will try to offer them continuation courses, by which they can obtain a solid base for their future life.