HIV / AIDS in Southern Africa

Two girls visiting their mother's grave

AIDS breaks down the immune system

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

Heart for Africa

A MISSIONARY RESPONSE TO THE HIV / AIDS PANDEMIC

AIDS Ministry in South Africa - a report from the MSC Promotion Office in South Africa

Holy Family Centre, Ofcolaco, South Africa

The work of MSC Sisters among AIDS sufferers in Namibia

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AIDS MINISTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Volunteer Holly caring for a child

The MSC Mission outreach to adults is far greater than we can calculate, e.g. several of our lay people who have been trained and taken counselling courses visit State clinics on a regular basisand speak with the patients they find there. Some of these lay people are themselves HIV positive which makes the impact of their message all the more effective. The media here from time to time acknowledge that the Catholic Church is doing more than any other organisation to combat HIV / AIDS.

The table indicates that 20 youth have been trained to educate and counsel. That means that several MSC feel that it is important for youth to speak to youth and so these youth, boys and girls, are involved in presenting programs in schools and workshops that take place in villages and Mission stations. They are invaluable in discussion groups.

Fr. Herman with youth being educated

Only a small percentage of the children, youth and adults that the MSC reach out to are Catholic. At the same time Christian Spirituality is an essential part of every endeavour. There is a good effort to introduce MSC spirituality into the courses.

The cost of training people is high and also for the implementation of the various exercises personnel are employed, e.g. African Sisters who speak the different local languages, qualified people like nurses.
Very often there is not much point in visiting AIDS sufferers in their home without taking along some food parcels. The following table illustrates the work MSCs are doing:

Category	Home based care of PWA	HIV / AIDS Awareness Outreach: Counselling, Sexuality, Workshops, Spirituality, Accompanying	Education & Counselling of people with HIV / AIDS	Orphans being cared for	Child headed families being cared for	HIV / AIDS children being cared for outside of home based care	Persons trained to edcate & counsel	Employed in income generating projects
Children & Youth	22	19,916		2,022	20 families of 55 children	135	20 youth
Adults	625	2,500	1,916				244	237

How are MSC missionaries helping HIV / AIDS sufferers?

The HIV / AIDS pandemic has created a new dimension to our ministry in Southern Africa. It is now an integral part of pastoral work. Our priests are involved along with Sisters from various religious congregations and other caring groups. Much of the work is geared around prevention through the Education for Life Programme, and around material support for the Orphan Care Programme. A very significant amount of time, energy, and material resources are devoted to this terrible epidemic that is now an integral and important part of our ministry.

Fr. Ciaran MacCarthaigh, MSC Provincial presenting a donation cheque from Ireland to Morwesi Dolo for the care of children. On the left is Fr. Herman van Dijck, Co-ordinator, at the MSC HIV / AIDS Response Office in South Africa, and at the rear is Fr. Tom Duane, msc

We provide pastoral care to those who are ill or dying, and for their families.

We work in collaboration with nuns from various congregations and lay people to organise home care for orphans to take them off the streets where they are vulnerable. Foster parents have often to be trained, as well as provided with material support to help them care for another child.

We support an education programme on the prevention of HIV / AIDS. It’s called Education for Life – the objective is to educate young people to choose life rather than death in their social and sexual behaviour. Training lay people to present these programmes at parish level is a big drain on meagre resources.

We provide material support for the building of counselling centres, and care centres for mothers and children, and for the training of volunteers for these centres.

Where necessary and possible, we provide food and clothing for poor families who have very little, particularly where the ‘bread winner’ has died or is seriously ill.

AIDS Hospice provides loving care

Home based care of an AIDS sufferer

Tshwaranang Hospice was an old convent used by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart who made the building available for a hospice. A Dutch charity funded the renovations, and MSCs currently fund the running costs. The hospice has 14 beds providing care and dignity for patients with TB or AIDS. Fr. Herman van Dijck, msc is seen here with the matron who is from the Congo and staff at the hospice. Fr. Herman does tremendous work both within his parish and outside it, and is Co-ordinator for the MSC AIDS Response programme. Donations sustain this work. We thank each donor for their gifts and their prayers for our missionaries and volunteers.

Fr. Herman about to start his rounds

The Matron & staff of the hospice with Fr. Herman

The Education for Life programme gives young people the skills to choose life rather than death in their social and sexual behaviour. For more on this and the Christian response to the HIV / AIDS pandemic visit the links at the end of this page.

A group discussion at the Education for Life training programme on HIV / AIDS	Volunteers are trained in AIDS counselling at the Ekuphileni Counselling Centre at Tsakane
Young people attending an Education for Life training programme on HIV / AIDS	Another young person is laid to rest due to the AIDS virus

We welcome material support by donors for the development of these programmes that respect the dignity of all involved. Individuals or groups wishing to support this essential work can go to Support Us on the menu of this site.

HOLY FAMILY CARE CENTRE

Ofcolaco Limpopo Province South Africa

Reaching out with love and caring for people with AIDS

Overview of the Project

The services offered at the Holy Family Care Centre at Ofcolaco in the Limpopo province comprise the following:

Care for orphaned HIV / AIDS babies and children who are referred to us from the local hospitals. Many of these are severely malnourished as well as HIV positive.

Care for abandoned mothers with HIV / AIDS who need basic medical care, adequate food and especially compassionate love and support. Almost all these mothers die at Holy Family and their children, who are usually HIV positive, remain with us. The life span of people with AIDS can be prolonged with good food, rest and basic medical care.

The project is non-denominational and accepts people of every belief.

Sr. Dain with some children

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 do not 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 have TB that involves 6 months of daily TB treatment. The children return to the hospital for regular review and a further supply of medicines. They continue to be monitored by the paediatrician.

We began this project in May 2002, so it is still in the very early stages of development. With our present financial resources we are budgeting for 30 children and about 10 terminal mothers.

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. 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.

A worker giving food to young children

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.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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 above project because of its great natural beauty, which can help to provide peace and promote healing. The property originally belonged to Missionaries of the Sacred Heart 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 administer it for the above HIV / AIDS project.

STAFF
Four Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are presently staffing the Care Centre. They come from South Africa, Congo, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

With so many children, especially toddlers, we need a lot of staff and this is one of our heavy expenses. The children must be supervised at all times, day and night so we are employing quite a few women from the nearby village. They make a marvellous contribution to the project and we would not be able to function without them. Overseas volunteers also help us from time to time.

Some children at Holy Family

ON-GOING FUNDING
Our greatest concern is on-going funding for the project because none of the sisters receives any income or salary. We have to rely on donations and also the great help that we receive from the local farming community around us. We need to improve some of the buildings to allow for our recent expansion so this is an additional concern.

CONCLUSION:
The Holy Family Care Centre at Ofcolaco came into existence in response to the huge need resulting from the HIV / AIDS pandemic.

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.

People often say that this kind of project must be very depressing. Our answer is that it certainly has its very sad moments because we love the children and it is heartbreaking when they die. However, it is not about length of life but rather quality of life. The children are God’s gift to us and their simple joy and love make Holy Family Care Centre into a place of much laughter and activity. The children form a real family and it is an un-ending source of inspiration to see how they care for one another.

THE WORK OF THE MSC SISTERS AMONG HIV / AIDS SUFFERERS IN NAMIBIA

Sisters at work in the kindergarten

HIV / AIDS is one of the biggest challenges in Namibia and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (MSC) are involved in different ways in combating and in the prevention of it in the country. AIDS sufferers and those who are affected by AIDS are victims of the new leprosy of our time. Their sad lot led the MSC Sisters to be involved in preparing the families to relate in a better way to their sick ones, to embrace them as members of the family and to stand by them to the end of their lives. This is not an easy matter since the people are thinking that having or being affected by AIDS is degrading the good reputation or the status of the family.

The MSC Sisters have been operating Sacred Heart Hospice, the only hospice in the country for terminally ill patients since 1996. Part of this health facility is used for the AIDS patients, especially those who are in their last stage of their lives, those patients who are not accepted in their families and those whose families are unable to take care of them. Patients suffering from AIDS are usually still young and the emotion of denial is very strong in them. How painful it is to prepare a young person facing death. Therefore, our Sisters are trying to give their love, their caring, and their compassion to the sick in their agony, and help them to die with dignity. Generous volunteers, who have been trained by the MSC Sisters for this, are doing a great service by visiting the sick in their families, giving advice and offering practical help.

Sr. Beata, msc with children in Mariental

The Catholic Church in Namibia has developed a program in prevention of AIDS. Some of our Sisters are working in this project of “Catholic AIDS Action”. This program is doing a great work in “home basic education” that is bringing information to the families, to the youth in the villages and preparing the families how to care for their sick ones in their homes. Youth and teenagers are given education in sexual behaviour.
One of our Sisters, a nurse by professional, is running a ‘Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy’ (HAART) program of the AIDS patients. It is also a project supported by the Catholic Church. Sister is assigned for the care, counselling, taking blood specimens for tests, education, and dispensing medicine for HIV / AIDS sufferers in the south of Namibia.

Sr. Merciana, msc on her way to minister in the Sacred Heart Hospice in Mariental, Namibia

Wherever our Sisters are, they are involved in taking care of the many orphans. Although some orphans are affected, but not yet sick, some treatment needs to be given to them since they are still living with their families. We, the MSC Sisters are providing education for them, food and clothing to the whole family, and we supervise their well-being while at home.

Counselling in this field is considered very important, since some families are still suffering from the traumas of war and torture. And when life becomes a burden for them, suicide is often the answer to their problems. So, working in the field of AIDS has many challenging factors and we cannot ignore these. We are called to be God’s heart in our world. Our Lord himself came into this world because He has a Heart for all people and today He uses us to make His Heart visible for those who are suffering from AIDS.

Pope Benedict XVI calls on the "people of goodwill" to help in the fight against HIV

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of his prayers and support for the victims of AIDS and has called on the people of goodwill to multiply efforts to stop the spread of the HIV virus.

Following last Saturday's World Aids Day, the Pope told his weekly audience that he is "spiritually close to those who suffer as a result of this terrible illness as well as to their families, in particular those struck by the loss of a close relative... I assure my prayers for all."

Pope Benedict's declaration follows the announcement by the UN special envoy for HIV / AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka, that the number of people affected by the HIV in 2007 was 35.2 million, down from 39.5 million in 2006.

While presiding at a Mass for the sick at the San Giovanni Battista Hospital of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, he stated that there is hope for those who are suffering if they keep their belief in the Lord.

"In trials and sickness God mysteriously visits us," the Pontiff said," and, if we abandon ourselves to his will, we can experience the power of his love."

- Courtesy of CINews 7 Dec 2007

Links to further information, particularly the prevention of the spread of HIV:

"African Successes in HIV Prevention - Considering the Power of Behavior-Based Approaches". To download a PDF report please click here

Extract from: "Community-Based Responses to HIV and AIDS in Uganda - A Review of Irish Missionary Resource Service-supported work". To download a PDF report please click here

"Fighting AIDS with Abstinence" - an interview with Sr. Miriam Duggan. To download a PDF report please click here

"How Changing Behaviour Can Control a Killer" - an interview by the Catholic Weekly in Sydney with Sr. Miriam Duggan. To download a PDF report please click here

"Only Education for Life Can Save People" - an interview with Bishop Hugh Slattery, msc. To download a PDF report please click here

"Common Sense in Fighting AIDS" - an interview by Zenit with Bishop Hugh Slattery, msc. To download a PDF report please click here

Book entitled: "HIV / AIDS - A Call to Action" by Bishop Hugh Slattery, msc. To download a PDF report please click here

Sr. Miriam Duggan says 'I think the pendulum has swung far enough in the free sex society .. maybe there's a call there to go back to God's ways". To download a PDF report please click here