BLESSED GÉRARD'S CARE CENTRE
A Dream Come True: Ground Breaking Ceremony for Blessed Gérard's Care Centre, Mandeni A brand new home care system is being introduced in Mandeni. On Saturday 5 August 1995, 1st class and founding members of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard, Geoff and Clare Kalkwarf, Dr Paul and Nokuthula Thabethe, Yvonne Renaud and Fr Gerhard Lagleder OSB performed the ground breaking ceremony for Blessed Gérard's Care Centre in Mandeni. They were followed by the Deputy Mayor of Mandeni, Mrs M. Nell, the Coordinator of Malteser Relief Service's aid to South Africa, Dr A. Graf von Rechberg, the Regional Director of Malteser Relief Service in Bavaria, Mr M. Schulz, MA and the Chairman of the International Committee of the Federated Association of the Order of Malta in the USA, Mr D. E. Meehan. Construction work will begin in the next few days and we expect to be able to move into the Centre in April 1996.
Blessed Gérard's Care Centre is an entirely new response to the ever-increasing need for home care. With AIDS statistics exploding and existing hospitals and other out-patient facilities finding it harder and harder to cope with the ever-increasing flow of patients, Blessed Gérard's Care Centre aims to enable affected families to care for their patients as best they can at home. Blessed Gérard's Care Centre bridges the gap between hospital and home.
In order to achieve the broadest possible impact, our Care Centre sets itself the following four goals:
The centre operates solely on a donation basis and will not charge patients.
We have started a building block campaign for Blessed Gérard's Care Centre under the motto "Please give us a building block". For further information, a corresponding leaflet is enclosed. Of course we would be very happy if you copy it as often as you like and pass it on to possible donors.
We will recognise the donors by name in the entrance hall of our centre. Each donor will take part in a draw for a donated flight Munich-Durban-Munich with each building block: The draw will take place on 31 December 1995 in Mandeni. The legal process is excluded and the prize cannot be exchanged for cash. Please support Blessed Gérard's Care Centre by buying one or more bricks of 20,- DM each! Mandini Spring FARE A special thank you to all the members who helped make our fundraising and publicity efforts at the Mandeni Spring Fare on 2 September 1995 such a great success. We chose Blessed Gérard's Care Centre as the focus of our activities and started the above building block campaign on this occasion.