Holy Cross AIDS Hospice was established in 2000 by Sr. Priscilla Dlamini to provide care and support for the sick and dying. It has since expanded to serve over 5 tribal authorities through various programs. These include home-based care, support for orphaned children, an in-patient unit offering palliative care, income generation projects, youth programs, and day care centers for children. Over the years, Holy Cross AIDS Hospice has played a key role in the community by creating jobs and bringing important services, like housing and feeding centers, to rural areas in need.

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ACTIVITIES OF HOLY CROSS AIDS HOSPICE
Holy Cross is a Non Profit Organisation which was established in 13 July 2000, the founder
of the organisation Sr. Priscilla Dlamini saw a need to establish a haven for the sick and the
dying so that they may die with peace and dignity. Since she is a professional nurse herself,
she was able to start by helping all the sick people who were abandoned by their families and
hiospitals because of incurable illnesses like HIV/Aids. Therefore her dream was to build a
secured place for them so that she could help them and monitor their progress.
Today after so many years of hardwork and determination, the organisation has reached so
many people in the comunity from 5 tribal authorities. They all benefit differently from the
organisation, we have home based care caregivers visit from house to house doing basic
nursing care, referral of partients to clinis and hospitals and the children are referred to Home
affairs for birth certificates and to Social Development for the application of support grants,
community gardens for nutrition, identifying the sick and dying and orphaned children from
child headed families, rendering the following services :food parcels, distribution of school
bags, school uniforms,screening for support grants,advocacy for schooling,building of houses
and distribution of clothing and blankets in winter. In-patient unit: offering palliative
care,emotional and psychosocial support and bereavement counselling is extended to the
patient and family members, spiritual care, pain and symptom control and complimentary
therapy. Income generation project: beadwork, education and training, music therapy and
sewing for income generation, Youth programme: visiting schools for behaviour
modification, teenage pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse,sports,HIV prevention,fertility
awareness, distribution of school bags.
Care of the caregivers programme: grievances, retreats once a year, yoga and trauma
healing exercises, individual counselling, spiritual care by spiritual counsellor once a month,
music therapy burning CDs as hospice choir.
Day care centres for children in the hospice and in the rural communities: feeding,
education, recreation ( make them play in order to bring back their childhood), transportation
of children,psychosocial support to children and guardians/ parents, psychological assessment
by the psychologists for those who are slow learners, school readiness.
Below are the pictures showing some of the activities that are taking place in the
organisation.

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Sewing women Food parcels Community gardens
School bags distribution Complimentary therapy Home based carers.
Over the years Holy Cross Aids Hospice has been been playing a huge role in job creation
because currently we have 53 staff members working in the whole organisation.

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Below is the continuation of activities at Holy Cross Hospice,
The Picture of the Holy Cross Hospice, creche and training Centre.
One of the households of the child headed family.

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A feeding centre in deep rural area. A house built for a family of children.
These are few of the wendy houses which were built by the organisation for the poor and
child headed households/families, the last 2 at the bottom left is the creche in the deep rural
area in KwaZulu Natal. This was just to bring services nearer to the people where there are no
infrastructure. Anybody can see from the distance how much is the community benefiting
from all the activities of the organisation.
The hospice is laso involved with disaster relief whereby the houses are burnt, flooded and
/or swept by the storm. When a community member dies especially the poor family , the
hospice is always supporting such families with food, transportation and at times to buy
coffins for them.