Category: UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2019

Her name is Diana Comacho – see photo. Her parents fled from the Frelimo war in Mozambique. She was born in South Africa. Sadly, her parents died when she was very young and she and three siblings were left alone with no relatives here to care for them. So, her brave older sister, a teenager at the time, had to do the parenting, no easy job when you have no income. The parents had both worked, but the children were left penniless. We found them, about 7 years ago, living on a stoep at the back of a house in Troyeville, really struggling.   

Diana completed her schooling at Jules High last year. Although it is extremely difficult for school-leavers to get work these days, she managed to find a menial job. Unfortunately, the so-called employers never paid her, so she left and is in need of some training. Mercy House considers it an honour, as usual, to be able to help: we are sponsoring her for a Beauty Course at a skills centre run by Bienvenue – a shelter for refugee women and children near Mercy House. We wish Diana well and hope that our efforts to help her will enable her to become self-employed.  

 

 

Nadine works as a volunteer at the Catholic Refugee Office. She helps in giving out food and clothing to refugees in need. As she needs some qualification to enable her to get employment, she asked us to help her do a  3-month course in home nursing which also includes caring for people with dementia and alzheimer’s disease. We were happy to be able to help and hope this will get her onto her feet in life.

On Sunday, 1 September,  we were able to welcome three young Americans  to Mercy House. Paige Clark was accompanied by her husband, Emmanuel, and Tiwana.  Paige has just taken up a post as Student Counsellor at the American International School and Tiwana is their new Service Learning Co-ordinator.  They arrived in South Africa in early August this year, Paige and Emmanuel coming directly from the USA and Tiwana from an English teaching stint in China.  They are very enthusiastic about helping at Mercy House in whatever way they can. We already planned that our Mercy House young people will attend a Fun Day at their school on Saturday 5 October. They will even fetch them and bring them home!   We put up posters to welcome Paige.
In the accompanying photo she is seen receiving one such poster, which touched her deeply. We thank God for this unexpected gift and look forward very much to working with them to enable our Mercy work shine and shine ever more brightly. Welcome Paige, Emmanuel  and Tiwana!