Holy Family Care Centre
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 greater leadership roles in the coming years. To this end, a request was placed with Palms Australia for a volunteer teacher to assist develop skills of staff in Holy Family’s creche.
Fran Hewitt
Palms Australia recruited Fran Hewitt, a teacher from Hobart, to work with the people of Ofcolaco.
Fran brings years of experience as a teacher, with experience in direct teaching and coaching, program development and coordinating regional programs. She has also provided training to teachers and aides in working with children with special needs.
Fran has experience with home care programs, providing support for people with disabilities and the aged.
Holy Family and Palms Australia believe Fran is well suited to the task of improving the services provided to orphaned and vulnerable children in Ofcolaco.
Fran’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.
Sharing food, sharing skills
March 2, 2012
Now I am settled back into the normal routine; long days and teaching again. School days often begin at 6am when I assist some children to help finish homework or get something from the classroom for them before breakfast. During the day I have lessons to plan, training programs to prepare – I continue to train Lilly in the Crèche, and I am starting to train Gregory (who had some teacher training many years ago) in primary teaching this year. I am also researching and preparing a document on behaviour management and discipline for the Centre, as well as getting the educational files for each child up to date for their new grades. Then when the children come home from school it’s teaching and homework from 3pm to 8.30pm (with an hour break for tea). It’s really busy, but at least on the weekends I get it a bit easier because I only do a morning and afternoon session each day.
One day I cooked a bread and butter pudding for the local workers, took it over to where they all have lunch and they shared their pap with morogo (like spinach) and I shared the pudding. Because they sometimes cook food for me, I had promised to cook some different things for them. Well they liked it and asked for the recipe, which I gave them, but many can’t read English. A few of them asked if I could show them, so last Thursday I had them over to our place, and gave a cooking demonstration! They brought their lunch with them but most were too embarrassed to eat because they use their fingers, and they were in a white person’s house – where none of them have ever been before. I said sometime soon I will prepare a lunch for them. One lady asked if we could use knives and forks, but then a few others said no, because they haven’t used them before and might be embarrassed. So I said I would provide different foods, some to eat with utensils and some to eat with fingers, and they could choose.
Then some of them tried to wash the glasses but we said no, we’ll do it. And two of them said it’s our job to clean for you. It took a while for us to explain they were our guests, and we would never expect them to clean up after us. Once they understood that was not our expectation they were all beaming. When they left they made comments like how exciting it was, how it was the first-time they’d been invited to a white persons house, that no one has ever cooked for them before, how kind we were, etc. It is humbling to realise that it is the simplest of things that can make such a difference. Under the apartheid rule they were given very little respect or consideration, and that is still reflected in their attitudes and views on many aspects of life.
Fran Hewitt, a teacher from Hobart, is volunteering at Holy Family in South Africa, supported by Palms Australia, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) and AusAID.
Term 4 in South Africa
January 23, 2012
I am continually learning more about the local culture here, and have to admit that I am in a country where the scars of oppression still run deep… Yet on the other hand, the flip side of this country, is the many, many lovely kind and friendly South Africans I have met; and I am getting to know, and be accepted by, the local women who work here.
Click here to read the full article
Culture, a matter of life and death
November 25, 2011
One of the great joys of volunteering is sharing in the real culture of another community. Recently, Anne Chapman in East Timor and Fran Hewitt in South Africa shared insights into family and death respectively.
Click here to read the full article
More articles
Write to Fran Hewitt
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To donate to support Fran Hewitt's placement in Ofcolaco, please use the form below. If you would like to make a general donation to Palms Australia, please use our dedicated donation page.
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Or call us on (02) 9518 9551 to make a donation by phone. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR WORK!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