Little Eden, 2007

We used our individual skills and talents to help wherever we could. Each one of us brought back home our own memories and feelings, but it is an unspoken fact that we will never forget the patients of Sukumawenze or the children of Little Eden. 

We left Dublin as a group for a ten week programme in South Africa. First, we made a brief visit to ‘Sukumawenze’. It is run by Fr. Paddy McMahon (an Irish Oblate in his 96th year) and a community of Sisters, who together give witness and hope in a difficult situation, were love is allowed to shine through. We also visited the four feeding centres run and supplied by the hospice, and fed over 200 local children on their way to and from school each day. We met and talked with many of these children and listened to their stories of what childhood in South Africa really meant and the challenges that they have to face each day; something that no children that we know of have to face each day at home.

The remaining nine weeks were based in ‘Little Eden’ in Johannesburg. The majority of our time was based at Elvira Rota Village (more fondly remembered as ‘The Farm’). Here we used our individual skills and talents to help wherever we could. A daily routine was quickly established involving among other things getting up early at 6am to help wash and dress the residents in the morning and again in the evening, assisting some residents who required it, a helping hand in feeding; and helping throughout the day in the various therapies such as occupational and music therapy which allow the kids to express themselves in so many unique ways in the daily activities that they found themselves doing.

We were warmly welcomed into the ‘Little Eden’ family and were sad to leave when the time came. It was a privilege for us to be allowed a brief insight into the lives of those we got to know such as Paulos, a baby left severely brain-damaged after his father arrived home one evening shot his wife, his two daughter’s, his baby son Paulos and then committing suicide. Paulos was then left for dead and abused until eventually Little Eden stepped in to take care of him. I will never forget the smile on his face every morning when I went to wake him.

Each one of us brought back home our own memories and feelings, but it is an unspoken fact that we will never forget the patients of Sukumawenze or the children of Little Eden.