MARCHING ON...with a production line!

Every new week at Gentlecare brings its own surprises and challenges and this week was no exception.

 This 18 year old joined us 4 months ago. His mind had been damaged by a life of difficult family circumstances and drug abuse. His body broken from neglect and his face swollen from malnutrition. When he first arrived his condition had us very concerned.

But, WHERE THERE IS LIFE... THERE IS HOPE!

 

 

Over the past 4 months, with the right food and some tender loving care, as his body began to heal a handsome young man emerged.

Now, ready to rejoin society, he says his goodbyes to the Gentlecare staff.

We wish him a long and blessed life!

 Illness is not the only challenge we face at Gentlecare.

High levels of unemployment in Britstown means that the tragedies we see come in the many packages of poverty. Here, a sick  mommy sits on the floor of her house with her children. The blanket is all they own. What would it feel like to be a sick mother with nothing at all?

We at Gentlecare know we can only do so much with the resources we have. We know that the battlefield is vast and terrible and that if we are to survive we must pick our battles. But, when we are faced with that same struggle in our neighbours and their survival is somehow tangled in the same battle, how can we not fight for them too?   We cannot always do much, but what we can, we do.

 This week we were blessed with a very exciting surprise! Henderike, a past Gentlecare volunteer from the Netherlands, has decided to return. She has already given us three months of her love and labour and has decided to come back and rejoin our team at the end of November for a few more months. We look forward to her arrival!

 

Lastly but certainly not least, in order for Gentlecare to keep caring for our beautiful patients we rely, not only on funding from generous individuals but also on the sales of our line of home-made products.

Here are a few examples of the things we make.  

Hand-made bath products: soaps, bath salts, lotions 







                                                                T- shirts


 



                                                                                       Hand-made Cards for any Occassion





                                                                  Hand-made Angel Bracelets

As Britstown is such a tiny town and very poor, we must try to send our products into the cities and onto the shelves of craft-shops. Unfortunately, this has not been an easy task. If you have any suggestions on how we could go about this or who we could approach we would definitely appreciate the advice. Similarly, if you would like to know more or support us personally with regard to these products please send us an email or leave a comment. We cannot always do much, but this really helps us do what we do!

UNMASKING SORROW

‘Then a woman said, ‘Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

                                                                                                                  Kahlil Gibran

Over the years Gentlecare has welcomed patient after patient, from small cold shacks into the warmth of their orange and fuschia care centre. With every new patient they again experience the pain of another life who has known far more betrayal, rejection and sorrow than most would even dare to imagine.

 Yet here, in perhaps what would be the most vulnerable time of their lives they are loved and fed, they are cleaned and gently tucked in every night to rest in the knowledge that they are totally safe and without debt.  It is a time when, as they are facing the fear of the tragedy of their own painful deaths, that they also experience the joy of an unconditional love they may have never before known. This week we unmask the sorrow to focus on the joy of some of the more fun times and beautiful days at Gentlecare.



This patient is one of Gentlecare’s miracles who came in broken and has left healed.

Here our wonderful carers, Marie, Beverly and Liezel celebrate their 3^rd Birthday at the center.

We are always looking for extra volunteers to help out at the centre. Every now and then we are blessed with an international volunteer and over the years those who have joined us have both brought and taken something special from the Gentlecare experience.

 

    Being silly,

                having fun.

 Spoiling patients in the new Jacuzzi

Olga, who arrived unwell, has no family and nowhere to go. Since she has been at Gentlecare she has begun improve and though her legs give her some trouble, she enjoys doing her bit to help out. Folding the washing is a constant job!

Thank-you Olga! 

But sometimes patients don’t get to Gentlecare in time. This week Tommie built a coffin for an unidentified lady who had been found dead and, without family to claim her body, had been left in the morgue for six months. Gentlecare took it upon themselves to at least give her the dignity of a proper burial.

INTRODUCING GENTLE CARE

In 2000, Ivonne Gentle began as a door-to-door volunteer bringing home-based care to the terminally ill in the small, impoverished community of Britstown, South Africa. After suffering through the tremendous pain of losing her three beloved sisters to cancer, Ivonne realised the deep value of providing joy, patience and love to the dying. Ivonne's work as a home-based carer was a way of extending her great gift of compassion to the rest of God's family in the loving memory of her own.  

Ivonne's experiences during her door to door ministry exposed her to the terrible conditions that so many of her sick, vulnerable and neglected patients faced as they struggled to hang on to life with some dignity. When one of her patients, close to death was kicked out of her home, Ivonne took up the call to love her. She made a space in her own home and nursed her patient back to health. 

Following this, Ivonne soon realised that this was not an isolated case. The poor living conditions, malnutrition and persistence of stigma surrounding diseases like HIV/AIDS meant that many weren’t receiving the care and love they needed. Some were dying alone, uncared for and unloved. This need struck to the core of Ivonne's heart and with the help, courage and support of her husband Tommie Gentle and their children, they converted their garage into the the GentleCare centre through which they now care for up to 11 patients. 

With the help and commmitment of their very special team of local volunteers they provide their patients with three nutritious meals a day, a clean bed, attentive care and, of course lots of love. Those that pass away do so with dignity and the knowledge that they are respected and valued. Those that make remarkable recoveries remain ever grateful to unconditional commitment they recieved at Gentlecare.

This blog will begin to track the the stories of the patients at GentleCare and the trials and truimphs experienced daily by Ivonne and Tommie Gentle. 

I hope that you are blessed and insipired as your follow this blog and that if you are able to offer a kind word, a helpful contact or a donation of your time, money or resources that you would do so in the same spirit of joy that Gentlecare passes on to every person who enters through their doors.