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Profiles of our Lay Missionaries

Sarah O'Carroll

Sarah from Co. Wicklow, took up an assignment at the end of January in

Phalaborwa Parish in South Africa.  The project aims to provide life-sustaining services to the people of the area - education, day care and nuntrition of children (including AIDS orphans), identifying families with particular needs as a result of HIV/AIDS, promoting AIDS prevention through the Education for Life Programme

and promoting adult literacy and skills development.

Sarah writes

" I am working in an Aids outreach programme which is divided into three branches, the first is Education for Life, the second Home Based Care and the third Orphan & Vulnerable Children. We work in three main areas which are all townships, the first

is Humulani, this is the biggest of the three and the people here are the most vulnerable as the majority of them are Mozambican refugees. They do not have South African I.D's and have no way of legally getting them at the moment and so cannot work legally and have no claim to Social Welfare grants and assistance. They do however still have access to free medical treatment and the children are still able to attend school.

My main task at the moment and basically since I've arrived is working closely with the local volunteers in order to visit every patient and orphan or vulnerable child they are working with so that I can build up a comprehensive data base of all clients the programme is providing a service to. This data base will be used to prioritise families for food parcels in the face of ever diminishing funds, to identify and assess the needs that these people have and to attempt to help those without birth certificates and Identity cards to get these where possible.

I am thoroughly enjoying my experience here and every day guarantees that I meet new people and learn something new whether this is about the culture here, myself or human nature in general. I am struggling with the local language but when I ended up last Friday with a group of about 40 children ranging from the age of 18 months to about 7 all looking to me to facilitate their play I was quickly able to string my few words together I can tell you, helped by the art of mime I never knew I could do!

Work here can be hot, tiring, sad & frustrating and like anywhere there are good

and bad days!! Sometimes the work doesn't move quickly enough for my liking and I have to remind myself to slow down! Working with government agencies can be maddening especially when there doesn't seem to be any steadfast rules and the stories that people get from them seem to change daily. But that's all part of the often very steep learning curve that I'm on.

I have recently managed to secure a social life for myself so am getting to see some of the surrounding areas on days off with my new found friends which helps a lot, time out is definitely an absolute must! Plus, I get to see some of the wild life which is very exciting, but some of it is not so welcome namely a snake that slithered right across my path and countless spiders, which I am slowly learning not to go into a cold sweat at the sight of!

All in all, so far it has been an extremely positive experience and I look forward to what is yet in store for me during my time here."

 

South Africa - Country Profile

South Africa - Margaret Rooney