Areas of intervention

Nazareth House takes care of disadvantaged, vulnerable people who have no close family or anyone else able to provide the care they require. These people fall into three main groups:

Frail aged
Nazareth House is open to all frail elderly people, regardless of race, religion or culture. However, as demand far outstrips capacity [we can accommodate only 40 elderly residents], priority is given to those in the most desperate circumstances – elderly people who are also mentally or physically challenged, those who need full time nursing care and those who are destitute with no family who are able to care for them. More.

Terminally ill adults
St Michael's Hospice in the grounds of Nazareth House, Vredehoek, provides short term palliative nursing care for the poorest members of society – those in the final stages of AIDS who are homeless after being abandoned by their families, and refugees with nowhere else to go.

Up to 14 patients can be accommodated at any one time. Many arrive with nothing but the hospital gown in which they have been transferred, and remain with us until their death. More.

Children's Home
Most of the 20 babies and children cared for at Nazareth House have been abandoned, orphaned or abused. Many are infected with HIV and/or have special needs, problems or disabilities such as Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, epilepsy, deafness and blindness.

We also function as an emergency after-hours place of safety for up to 8 children who have to be quickly removed from dangerous or abusive situations, newborn babies found abandoned in toilets or on railway lines, and those whose parents die suddenly in the night. More.

Donations of cash or goods are always received with great gratitude. Please click here to find out how you can help.

Community Cottage
Eleven of the healthier HIV+ boys and girls live together as a family unit in a house in the community, under the care of a Housemother and an assistant. The children attend local schools and interact with their peers in the community at the local football and gymnastics clubs. More.

Family reunification programme
We all know that institutional care for children should be the last resort; wherever possible we try to help families to cope long-term, or place children in the care of their extended families. More.