Marina Brink, one of our volunteers at Bethesda has been involved with our Child care project for about 15 years. The most recent project she has taken on is the collection of food to be able to support our children with food parcels and, therefore, a decent meal during the December holidays.
To give you a bit of background: Bethesda Medical and Relief Services is a registered non-profit company and has 4 programs, namely the Intermediate Care Facility, the Child and Youth Care Centre, Integrated Health and Wellness and a Child Development Program, as well as various support divisions. The Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) is also known as the Hospice; and this is where referrals from District Health Care institutions, other relevant NGO’s, and members from the general public are admitted to receive Palliative and Rehabilitative Care, as well as Post-Acute services. This includes restorative care, rehabilitation, respite, and development and stimulation programs. Along with the care we provide to our patients; we also provide them with adherence support, spiritual and psycho-social interventions, and prevention programs. Most of the patients we admit have either life-threatening or- limiting conditions such as HIV, AIDS, TB, and cancer. The Child and Youth Care Center (CYCC) cares for 26 orphans and vulnerable children, who are placed in our care by a court. The children live in two residential houses which are located on the organisation’s premises. The purpose of the residential houses is to provide them with an environment that is equal to a normal household. They are also provided with rehabilitation and development care and programs that are registered with the Department of Social Development. These include Emotional and Psycho[1]social care, Counselling, Behaviour Modification, Independent Living and Educational assistance. Integrated Health and Wellness Services works hand in hand with the local clinics and provides health services to community members in the comfort of their own homes. The services offered include clinic recalls, screenings, prevention programs and health promotions.
The Milestones development program (also known as the Wikkelwurms) has 20 children who attend the program during the week. These children come from underprivileged communities and households. The children who attend the program have major developmental delays and the service we therefore provide includes general stimulation of all perceptual and motor components through therapeutic activities, improvement of early childhood development, development of basic life and personal maintenance skills and improvement of their holistic health. When the children are ready for school, they leave the program to be phased into mainstream schooling. The children may visit family homes during the school holidays, should it be an aunt or grandmother, after a Social worker has deemed it fit. Most of the time they can accommodate the children but do not have sufficient means to provide them with adequate meals. This sometimes create a situation where children must stay in at the Centre. This project is therefore to enable them to go home during the December school holiday. With this, then, a friendly request for a contribution in the form of milk especially long-life milk, yogurt or even ‘’maas’’, butter or cheese which we can provide to the children during the holiday and enable them to spend the Christmas season with family.
This project was launched and successfully finalised and ALL the children was at home during the December holidays and we also supply foor for the Wikkelwurms (Milestones).
WHAT A JOY
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