Holy Family Care Centre

Situated at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains in Ofcolaco, Limpopo Province, South Africa, Holy Family Care Centre is responding to the needs of the sick and vulnerable, especially orphaned children with HIV and AIDS. Each person who comes to Holy Family Centre is helped to find peace of mind in beautiful surroundings and is treated with reverence and respect.

Run by the OLSH sisters since 2002, the centre has filled an important role in the local community, both supporting vulnerable children so that they may participate in community life, including receiving education at the local school and proper health care, and contributing to better understanding of health issues.

Several local staff assist the program and it is hoped that with training they will be empowered to take more leadership roles in the coming years.  To this end, a request was placed with Palms Australia for a volunteer nurse to assist for one year.

Carmel Lawry

Palms Australia recruited Carmel Lawry to fill the request of Holy Family, sharing her skills in health care programs for one year.

Carmel has 20 years experience in health care, with qualifications in Nursing, Administration and Training. In letters of recommendation, she has been described as a “truly dedicated and committed individual who always places others before herself.” She has overseen the workplace training of several colleagues and has ensured her Australian employer, an aged health service, maintained its professional accreditation.

She has twice previously volunteered in South Africa and has a passion for working with orphaned and vulnerable children. Holy Family Care Centre and Palms Australia are both very confident in Carmel’s ability to contribute to improved health care for the children of Ofcolaco, South Africa.

Carmel’s placement costs are partially covered, but Palms Australia needs your support to cover the remainder of the costs. Please use the donation link on the right hand side of this web-page to contribute.

Life is never boring

March 2, 2012

Holy Family has been established for 10 years this year – from a very small home initially for mothers dying from AIDS and their children to a fully established registered children’s home for 70 children. There is a celebration to mark the occasion. Fran (see page 16) is organising a concert, the children providing the entertainment – singing, dancing, gymnastics, ball skills etc. I have started to teach a group of kids to juggle – I knew my juggling skills would eventually go international. Ha Ha. The kids get a kick out of seeing and doing something new and we have lots of laughs. I think I may be roped into some cooking for the arvo tea as well.

Fran has been experimenting with the local food – some is very nice while others I would be happy to leave. Fran has just cooked up a batch of Mopani worms, which have been dried and salted (they look like hard fat caterpillars). You boil the dried worms, drain and then add fried onion, tomatoes and of course lots of salt. She got one of the local women to test it out and with a few tips managed to get the recipe right. I’ve also tried deep fried grasshoppers which taste ok – just crunchy and salty.

I start a teaching program with one of the local staff next week. Basically, I will be showing her how to look after the children’s health needs and to run the clinic. Olga has had some experience as a carer and over the next six months I hope she will gain the knowledge and experience to work in the clinic. I have developed an education program with lots of resources, so they can be used as a reference. One of Palms’ objectives is to promote an exchange of skills so that the focus is on community development not just providing aid.

Over the last few days we have had torrential rain – rivers are overflowing and there has been some huge damage to local villages and communities in the Northern Province which were in a poor state to begin with. We were unable to transport staff to and from the local village on Wednesday as the river was flowing over the bridge and no one could get through for fear of being swept away. Many gates at Kruger National park have been closed and evacuations have occurred both there and in some villages. Although we now have a flowing waterway at the back of the property and the grounds were flooded, we were fortunate as no major damage occurred at Holy Family. However the frogs are loving it. So last year fire surrounded Holy Family and now this year it’s a flood – life is never boring .

Carmel Lawry, a nurse from Melbourne, is volunteering at Holy Family in Limpopo, South Africa. Her placement is supported by Palms Australia, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) and AusAID. 

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A moment of sadness in South Africa

February 9, 2012

My time here so far had been one of seeing kid’s health and lives improve but this is the sad reality of the AIDS virus. I would hate to think what it was like when the virus first took hold in South Africa. The care and treatment has really improved but for the young an infection can kill them so quickly.

Click here to read the full article

Initial observations from Ofcolaco, South Africa

September 27, 2011

The clinics have been run by welfare organisations and the medications funded by USA. It was never the intention for this to carry on forever.

Click here to read the full article

More articles

• Variety in volunteering
• Orientation Course #92

Write to Carmel Lawry

All fields marked with * are required. Please do not use this form to ask volunteers about volunteering. For more information on the opportunities available, contact the Palms Australia office using our online enquiry form or call (02) 9518 9551.

Conditions of Use

South Africa

Population: 49,052,489

Area: 1,219,090 sq. km.

Median Age: 24.7

Literacy: 86.4 %

Languages: IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, English, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, IsiNdebele, Tshivenda, siSwati

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