Helping, protecting & serving the vulnerable
The recipients of our outreach programs and volunteer work are some of the poorest and least fortunate. The Sisters of Nazareth run two registered NPO outreaches; Morning Star Creche and Frances Shannon Outreach Centre in addition to numerous other outreach programmes across the country.
The Sisters commitment
The Sisters of Nazareth are unremittingly involved in outreach programmes and community work projects across the country, including Harare, Zimbabwe. Some of these outreaches and community work projects require the Sisters to visit remote locations and provide support, care, and basic necessities to those who need it most.
Making a difference
These initiatives include food and soup kitchens in Schauderville – Port Elizabeth, outreach to poor and needy in Alexandra, Yeoville and Soweto in – Johannesburg, support to night shelters, soup kitchens and the Masigcine Children’s home in Khayelitsha – Cape Town, home-based care and women self-help centre at Frances Shannon Hospice in Warrenton – Kimberly, and the Morning Star creche with 60 under privileged children from the surrounding area at Nazareth House Fourteen Streams, and much more.
With your support, the Sisters of Nazareth can continue to expand their critical welfare work and provide much-needed relief in these poor and impoverished areas.
I want to Donate
What began as a humble dream for change has become a place where the most vulnerable in our society find sanctuary, love, and hope for a better tomorrow. Your donations can help the Sisters continue their Mission.
I want to Volunteer
Volunteering is a great way of assisting non-profit organisations. “If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life.” ~ Author Unknown
I want to Partner
Our Ambition for Change defines what we want to achieve for deprived children, impoverished communities, and vulnerable elderly. The objective is simple: To close the gap between the funding we receive and the funding we need.
Our Outreaches
Johannesburg
Nazareth House Johannesburg is situated in the community of Yeoville, often referred to as an “oasis” as it offers a safe haven within an impoverished area. Gangs dominate Yeoville, and many areas are sprawling slums with desperate people living there.
One of our Sisters continues to live her vocation in an unselfish existence despite the Corona saga, by continuing her Outreach programme, always being available for the sick, as well as working closely with the Hillbrow Clinic.
Her work assists the poor and indigent people living in shacks and derelict flats in Yeoville, Hillbrow, Jeppestown, Belgravia, and Berea, to name a few. When mentioning the above, Sister has a beautiful smile and a wink and quirks ”My people” because she has been working with them for 20 years!
Sister also supplies blankets, vegetables, and food parcels to a soup kitchen three days per week and also assists with a soup kitchen in the Parish Church and the Refugee Centre which feeds about 200 adults and children who are mainly unemployed and multi-national. She has been very popular, especially during winter and the Coronavirus setting, where people are hungry and sleeping in open parks surrounding Yeoville. Another Sister works with the residents at the end of their days, comforting and praying with them.
Sr. Bridget has been committed to supporting this community regularly, despite the imminent danger.
Port Elizabeth
The Sisters at Nazareth House Port Elizabeth have an outreach program in the Schauderville township in Port Elizabeth. It is run from the St. James Catholic Church.
Schauderville is one of the poorest suburbs in Port Elizabeth, a city with the highest unemployment rate in South Africa. Some of the people in this area live in abject poverty, many existing on not more than one meal a day. The crime rate is high, and gangs rule the area.
In this poverty-stricken area, the Sisters assist with soup kitchens and donations of items that the community desperately needs. The presence, love, and compassion they provide to this community fulfil a great need. The Sisters spend additional time offering moral support and guidance to the community members during each visit.
Cape Town
At Nazareth House Cape Town, the Sisters of Nazareth provide support to numerous outreach programmes. These include:
The Ark: The Ark City of Refuge opened its doors in 1992 in response to the extremely high rate of homelessness and unemployment in the Western Cape. It is unique among organisations and is probably the largest one of its kind in South Africa. Since their inception, some 65,000 people have walked through their gates in need of help. Currently, they average about 950 people—Women 205, children & youth 264 and men 475. Nazareth House Cape Town continuously supports The Ark with any excess of donations received or items that are not used at the House.
St Kizito: St Kizito’s Children’s Programme is a community-based, non-profit project responding to the church’s call to offer a hand to those in need and is part of the Cape Town Archdiocese’s outreach. It aims to meet the physical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, and spiritual needs of vulnerable children, especially those affected and infected by HIV / Aids. St Kizito is active in several disadvantaged communities in and around Cape Town. Trained members instruct others to establish parish groups
in target areas. Once trained, these groups provide children and families in their communities with a range of services and are themselves given ongoing mentorship and support from the St Kizito office. Nazareth House Cape Town supports them with surplus nappies, baby food, and clothing on an adhoc basis.
Masigcine: Masigcine (which means, “let us cherish”) is a registered Children’s Home in Mfuleni, where 28 orphaned, abandoned, and HIV infected children between the ages of 3 months and six years of age live. These children are referred to Masigcine by Social Workers via the Children’s Court. This Children’s Home was started in 1989 when a social worker from the community saw the need of the destitute children in the area. Nazareth House Cape Town regularly donates children’s goods, food, and clothing to this project.
The Haven Moira Henderson House: Their method is to make temporary shelter, rehabilitation opportunities, social welfare services, family reunification services, physical care and support available to adult people living on the streets who are committed to reintegration. Nazareth House Cape Town shares Woolworth’s donations with this organisation. Also, any excess vegetables and fruit collected from the market on Fridays get distributed to them.
Durban
Durban House has recently nominated The Dennis Hurley Centre as part of its outreach project.
The Denis Hurley Centre in Durban CBD is committed to helping the most marginalised individuals. Sister Cathy will be assisting Nazareth House Durban in caring for the poor, homeless, and refugees who visit the Centre, as she facilitates all of the projects at the Denis Hurley Centre.
Harare
Tichakunda is a community project that is run by the locals. It is an early childhood development full-day care centre in Hatcliffe-Extention, Harare, Zimbabwe. They aim to make the children see that the human system sometimes may fail them, but God‘s system will provide for them.
The Sisters of Nazareth at Nazareth House Harare regularly visit the project and support them with donations. The land is owned by the Sisters of Nazareth but is utilised by the people as their own.
Started by Sr. Irene Holland who is now Superior of our Johannesburg Home. Since Sister Lorraine’s arrival to Harare in October 2019 she’s only had the privilege of visiting the Mission once, due of the shortage of petrol at the time in the country and now that we are all in lockdown. Nazareth House supports the Mission regularly with clothing, mealie meal and furniture when possible. The land was bought by the Generalate (our Mother House in Hammersmith) and to this day much progress, has taken place. These include bedrooms with bunks for 34 children that are now cared for on the premises. There are over 500 children that come for schooling and are fed during the day. The community has a self-generated project of growing veggies, and the children receive daily nutritious meals .
The teachers give their services on a voluntary basis, and likewise the running of this project began by a devoted and dedicated Mother and her four grown up children, who are constantly on the go morning, noon, and night. Naturally everything is dependent on donations and the finance of this Mission is in the hands of well established Trustee. Any monies received abroad for this Mission comes through the Sisters of Nazareth Account, for transparency. We the Sisters of Nazareth, in Harare, will continue to support Tichakunda Mission and keep a close eye on all future developments and Finance.
