Newsletter

EASTER EDITION 2010

A 75 year legacy of healing!

An Easter miracle

Tony is 16 years of age. He was living in Zimbabwe with his parents when they both died of TB. Alone, with no place to call home, and no money, he embarked on a journey, walking and catching rides in the back of trucks to connect with an uncle who lives in Cape Town. At the border crossing, many people were prevented from entering South Africa and much to his surprise, he just walked passed the border station without anyone stopping him.

Tony felt sick the entire time. He knew something was wrong, so when he reached Cape Town he sought medical treatment. He was diagnosed with diabetes and was placed at St. Joseph's Home in May of 2009. Once in our care, we treated his malnutrition and also diagnosed him as having TB - he was immediately placed on TB medication. Tony feels that St. Joseph’s has given him a chance to get his life back and says, “this is the first time in a long time that I don’t feel sick and I can sleep at night without being worried”.

Today, Tony has obtained refugee status and attends the Athlone School. He is in grade 11 and has an aptitude for science. Tony is one of their top students. He is also considered a student leader. He wants to become a doctor, and when asked why, he said, “I have seen so many children suffering, and I want to do something with my life to help them to get better”.

Tony injects himself four times a day with insulin, and tests his sugar levels six times a day. He has learned to manage his diabetes and he feels proud of the manner in which the nurses trained him to monitor and treat his illness. He shares a section of the medical ward which is exclusively for children with diabetes.

Tony enjoys playing chess and would like to start a chess club at St. Joseph’s. When he is discharged from the Home, Tony hopes to live with his uncle, who has remained his only link to his parents.

He is loved by all who meet him and we walk away with an appreciation for all that he has been through and overcome. Tony is our miracle child for our Easter edition.

Peter Hughes selected as Chairman

Peter Hughes has been selected as Chairman of the Board of Directors for St. Joseph’s Home for Children by the Pallottine Missionary Sisters to fill the role of the retiring chairman, Archbishop Henry Lawrence.

Peter has served on the Board for over a year as a member of the Executive Committee. In one of Peter’s first acts as Chairperson, the Archbishop Henry has been invited to serve as a Patron of St. Joseph’s Home.

Peter brings 17 years of experience as the CEO of the Spar Group Limited, and 10 years as a Spar International Director. Peter continues to serve as a Non-Executive Chairman of the Spar Group Ltd.

His work experience and leadership will serve St. Joseph’s well, as the continuing winds of change challenges us to do more with less. We are confident that Peter, along with the Pallottine Sisters and the twelve Board members, will help St. Joseph’s Home to achieve continued success in the years to come.

An Easter message

We are not spared dark nights. They are clearly necessary, so that we can learn freedom and maturity and above all else a capacity for sympathy with others… A part of every human love is that it is only truly great and enriching if I am ready to deny myself for this other person, to come out of myself, to give of myself. And that is certainly true of our relationship with God, out of which, in the end, all our other relationships must grow. I must begin by no longer looking at myself, but by asking what He wants. I must begin by learning to love.

Pope Benedict XVI

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THERE ARE ONLY TWO WAYS TO LIVE YOUR LIFE. ONE IS AS THOUGH NOTHING IS A MIRACLE. THE SECOND IS AS THOUGH EVERYTHING IS A MIRACLE.

Albert Einstein

Please consider making an Easter donation on behalf of the children.

Suggested levels of “Mind the Gap” support

Level one: R166 per month
Level two: R1,000 per month
Level three: R2,000 per month

I believe that if an angel were to wing his way from earth up to Heaven, and were to say that there was one poor, ragged boy, without father or mother, with no one to care for him and teach him the way of life; and if God were to ask who among them were willing to come down to this earth and live here for fifty years and lead that one to Jesus Christ, every angel in Heaven would volunteer to go.

D Moody

From the Archives

Mother Teresa visits St Joseph’s home in 1988

What we do is less than a drop in the ocean, but if it were missing, the ocean would lack something.

Mother Teresa