A Christmas encounter every day
Every year Thandi Skhosana and Angy Mlilwane put up a Bethlehem Christmas nativity scene in their parish. Near the crib there is a collection box. Fellow parishioners donate money and gifts. The donations are given to underprivileged children in Soshanguve. In addition to the toys, the kids are bought what they will need for the new school year.
Their commitment is inspired by the encounter between the Holy Family and the three wise men from the east. During this joyous season they encourage us to reject patterns of over-consumption and embrace a Christian lifestyle that is richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving to less privileged people.
Many of us have bought or received gifts from friends and family. Some of us have donated to charity. For some, such noble actions have become our Christmas obligation.
But in life there are people who go an extra mile in helping others. Their works of charity extend throughout the year. One such group is the Holy Cross Sisters in Suiderburg, Pretoria.
The sisters Holy Cross Home is situated near the Mabopane highway. It used to be a hospital and maternity home serving Pretoria’s former black township of Lady Selborne. Things changed when the black population was removed under the Apartheid government’s policy of forced removals to places such as Mamelodi and Atteridgeville. Holy Cross became an old age home for frail nuns and priests.
In 1994 the home changed its admission policy and opened doors to all those who were in need of their services, irrespective of colour, culture or religious beliefs.
In response to the Aids pandemic, the sisters opened a hospice. In 2001 it was named in a survey by the Pretoria News as the institution providing the best quality of care in the Pretoria area.
The home also has an outreach and home-based care service in the nearby informal settlement of Plastic View a dismal place, so called because its residents live under sheets of plastic.
Sr Emmanuel Nyeka, the matron of the Home, says that the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has turned the way in which the home functions around. Instead of patients coming to die, they now come to get better and be discharged.
In past years, a sombre service of remembrance was held each year on World Aids Day, December 1. Instead, a Mass of Celebration and Thanksgiving was celebrated, to which the Archbishop George Daniel of Pretoria was invited, as well as former patients, who had the opportunity to tell their stories.
One of the patients, who went to Holy Cross to die and who recovered fully from the ARVs provided at Holy Cross, is now in full time service with Treatment Action Campaign, running Access to Treatment and Treatment Literacy workshops all over the country.
With the end of the Christmas season next month, Thandi and Angy will return the Bethlehem pieces to the storage. But let us not put the spirit of the three wise men into the archives.
As we make New Year resolutions, let us remember institutions like the Holy Cross Home. Like most charities, the sisters depend entirely on public support and prayers. In this way we can help them make each and every day a Christmas encounter for those who come to them for help.
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