Sadly, for so many of our children and their families the Great Depression lives on. 60% of South African children live in poverty and have a life expectancy of 47.7 years. Consider, too, that 75% of children up to six years of age are also living in poverty. This adds up to 5.2 million children in South Africa who remain caught up in a poverty cycle. Today the Pallottine sisters are needed even more than ever.

Today we care for children suffering from all forms of cancer, congenital birth defects, juvenile arthritis, insulin dependent diabetes, heart and renal failures, accidents and abuse victims, TB / HIV / AIDS and other chronic long term illnesses. The Pallottine Sisters along with a caring staff continue to make a difference in the lives of the children we serve.

Most of our children come from informal settlements where clean water, electricity, sanitation and healthy food are in short supply. Unemployment here is over 60% and mothers who work, usually as house cleaners for minimum wages, tend to be absent from their homes for long periods of time. The informal settlements are breeding grounds for drug abuse, crime and opportunistic infections.

45% of our children are in treatment for up to a year, 20% for up to 6 months and 35% are in treatment for 3 months or less. Our children live in five medical wards. Daisy (girls) and Sweet Basil (boys) serves 50 children up to 8 years of age and Protea (boys) and Freesia (girls) serves children ages 8 and over. Sunflower Medical Ward cares for infants and young children suffering from HIV/AIDS.

While the children are in care, we provide 24 hour nursing care, a multi-disciplinary intervention focus which includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, hydrotherapy, special dietary meals, and spiritual services, formal schooling and our own Crèche pre-school program. We also provide religious and spiritual services that respects the religious orientation of each child in our care. In addition, parents receive training and counselling from our Social Work staff on how to monitor and care for their child.