|
In the run up to World Aids Day, health department staff spent a day in overalls, giving a much-needed lick of paint to the Ebenezer Care Centre.
The City’s executive director of health, Dr Refik Bismilla helps out
THE Ebenezer Care Centre, a stone's throw from the Grasmere Toll Plaza in Region G, has received a major renovation thanks to the Mayoral AIDS Fund.
The centre cares for over 100 people, including senior citizens and Aids orphans. It is run by Pastor Thomas and Shirley Merime, and was started in 1992.
On 19 November, the City's department of health sent 22 of its employees to help paint and plaster the centre's walls, giving it a much-needed facelift, according the Merime.
Dressed in overalls, they got their hands dirty with paint and cement, first plastering the dry walls of the centre's pre-school, and then painting them pink.
The project was undertaken as part of the City's build up to World Aids Day, which is marked worldwide on 1 December. Nkosinathi Nkabinde, the health department's communications officer, said the centre was an appropriate beneficiary because "it gives love and hope, [so] these people [can] live a normal and happy life".
Merime, a co-founder and the general manager of the centre, grew up on the streets; she speaks compassionately of her centre.
Compassion and patience
"Usually, kids from the street are full of anger and hatred through what has happened in their lives. These kids have to be treated with lots of love, compassion and patience. It is important that we do not give up on them."
Orphaned at the age of eight when her mother died of cancer and she was abandoned by her alcoholic father, she and her sibling were later taken into an orphanage, where she met her soul mate, Thomas.
Married for over 32 years, it has always been the couple's dream to run a centre to care for, feed, clothe and house HIV-positive orphans and senior citizens who suffer from an assortment of chronic illnesses. "We have worked hard to make sure that children on the streets who are growing up the same way we did, get a better life, shelter and home," she noted.
"Our vision is to take care of the aged and orphaned children. To give love to these people and hope they live a normal and happy life."
Located amid the sprawling informal settlements of Region G in the deep south, Ebenezer - meaning "the rock of hope" - is a sanctuary for its inhabitants. It has a vegetable garden, a brick manufacturing business, and a bakery where bread is baked daily.
Orphans
It was a sunny day when the health department workers arrived. About 60 children were running around the sandy playground, playing on the swings. They lifted each other up, hustling and jostling for a swing; some even squabbled, as all children do from time to time.
The children scampered around happily, until they spotted a photographer in their midst. Begging for their pictures to be taken, they performed a variety of stunts, hoping to be captured on camera. "Shoot me," they shouted simultaneously, after every snap yelling, "Yeah … yeah."
Merime said she encouraged all the centre's inhabitants to be self-reliant. "We ensure that children get necessary education and encourage religious and cultural instruction."
Ebenezer cares for some 135 people, including 65 children, 50 percent of whom are HIV-positive. "We accept people from all areas, and with no discrimination to colour and creed."
Elderly
Senior citizens at the centre have no identity documents and suffer from prostate and cervical cancer and are considered vulnerable, underprivileged and homeless.
Dr Refik Bismilla, the City's executive director of health, noted that it was important for the City always to be in touch with its people and engage in such projects. "We have to continue with human development."
A former teacher, Merime resigned from her post to answer a call from God - that of starting the centre. At the time, Pastor Shirley, as she is known around the hospice, did not have a strategy; however, she credits God and her husband as her pillars of strength, giving her tenacity, indomitable courage and strength.
Caring for people was a selfless act. "The needs of others are more important to me than my own. I can go hungry but not my old folks or my children."
Speaking about the day's painting of the centre, Merime said she understood how much colour meant to children, which is why she asked for the City's help. "I am grateful to the Lord that the City managed to heed our call and come help us finish building this centre.
"It means a lot to me, because where was I going to attain the money to finish building the centre?"
Partnership
Merime works with the police, the department of social development and hospitals around Joburg that refer young children from the streets to her.
Ebenezer is a non-profit organisation that helps the destitute, regardless of their colour or creed. The centre is registered with the department of social development but it receives no subsides.
One of its objectives is to ensure that children get basic education at the nearest government schools. "There is only one thing that I can be able to give these children, and that is education which will serve to empower them in future," she said.
To make a donation to the Ebenezer Care Centre, contact Pastor Shirley Merime or her husband, Thomas Merime, on 082 956 7459 or make a deposit to the Ebenezer Care Centre, First National Bank account number 55280069962, branch number 250737, Lenasia.
Alternatively, cheques or postal orders or other contributions can be posted to PO Box 1287, Kiasha Park, 1829. The centre can be emailed at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Related stories:
|
