Blessed Gérard's Palliative Care Centre

Our Newsletter 2023 & Annual Report 2022 is online now!

Reports about our Outpatient Hospice

Reports about our Outpatient Hospice

Reports about our Outpatient Hospice

Reports about our hospice

My brother, Father Gerhard, gets a call. He asks me, "Would you like to come with me, I have been called. I am going to see a dying person." I don't hesitate and come along silently. I don't know what…

Jabulani talks about his life and what "being happy" means to him.

Sinenhlanhla talks about her life and dreams as a young girl.

Mbongani has been in the hospice for several months. He was admitted to our hospice because of advanced tuberculosis and severe skin problems.

Christmas in the children's hospice under Corona conditions

Reports about our Outpatient Hospice

Reports about our hospice

It was one day before Christmas Eve when little Hawukelani*, just under 5 months old, was brought to us by his mother. He had diarrhoea, was constantly vomiting and did not want to drink properly. So…

Siphosenkosi was his name.

This means "gift of the Lord" in the Zulu language and we all called him simply "Sipho" for short. One and a half year old Sipho came to us on 2 October 2003. The social…

It is Wednesday 9 May. We got a call for a home visit. In principle, nothing unusual, because relatives or neighbours often call us and tell us that there is a sick person in the family or…

In memory of Menzi

by Sr. Sheilagh Schröder

It was literally an answer to prayer that I came to work for Blessed Gérard's Care Centre. I had been working part-time in nursing in England and really…

Dr Roux Martinez, then a resident in trauma and transplant surgery in Cape Town/South Africa, answered the question why she became an active member of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard:
"Indeed, there…

The Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard responded to the concentrated and enormous distress of the South African AIDS pandemic in many ways.

The story of Thandi and her son Bhekithemba should give you an impression of the terrible situation of many people in our area and show you how we help people in a meaningful and effective way:

Thandi…

Our President, Fr Gerhard, is a Missionary Benedictine from the Archabbey of St Ottilien in Germany and was sent out as a missionary to Inkamana Abbey in South Africa on 6 January 1987. When two of…

Today my friends and I are going to collect our retirement pensions. We will all meet at the pension office. We have a lot to tell each other and then we will buy fruit and bread from the market women…

Now I am happy, I have no more pain and no more fear!

- Sduduzo's mother tells his story and her own -

My name is Mpume and in July 2000, like everyone else, I was happy and confident about the…

AIDS

Here in Germany, the deadly immunodeficiency is hardly ever talked about. In Africa, however, it is devastating an entire continent. In South Africa, almost a thousand people die every week as a…

Khululiwe is only 15 when she becomes a mother. Particularly tragic: the young woman is already infected with the deadly HIV virus and so her baby is also born with the deadly pathogen. See now the…

Bongani was brought to us on a Friday evening by his grieving grandmother. She was grieving for her daughter who had died of AIDS two weeks earlier and this was her baby. The grandmother had not known…

We celebrate Mass every weekday in the chapel of Blessed Gérard's Care Centre & Hospice for the patients, volunteers and staff. In this way we experience help and strength in accepting Christ's…

The new nurse at Blessed Gerard's Care Centre

It is with great pleasure that we introduce Sr Sanet van Zyl [pronounced: Sannètt fann Säil]. We would also like to welcome her very warmly to our team at…