About

St. Joseph’s Home is a private, but state funded home, providing convalescent care and medical services for up to 144 children who suffer from chronic and debilitating illnesses. To this end we have four dedicated wards plus our Sunflower HIV/AIDS ward.

By 1935, the Great Depression had left in its wake a heritage of suffering, including significant numbers of disabled and chronically ill children living in destitute circumstances on the Cape Flats. The Pallottine Sisters responded to the need and opened a Home for these children. They suffered from Tuberculosis, Flu pandemics. malnutrition, Polio and other severe and chronic illnesses.

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.

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 creche 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.