Charity Mnisi, from Orlando East, in Soweto, was once very ill. The 37-year old believes that it’€™s a miracle that she’€™s still alive. She says she owes her life to Footprints hospice, a care facility run by retired nurses in her own area of Orlando East.

‘€œI came here in July. I’€™m feeling better than before. When I came here I couldn’€™t walk. I was moving with the wall’€¦ touching the wall when I moved. But now I can walk properly. I can go by myself to the toilet. I can go outside to buy some few things. It is a miracle (she laughs). I thank God and the sisters here who help me a lot’€, says Mnisi.

‘€œI came here when I was HIV-positive. I got help. They gave me pills and I’€™m much better now. I’€™m on ARVs. (My) CD4 count was very low, but now it’€™s gone up. When I came here it was less than 100, but now it’€™s gone up’€¦ I think I’€™m 336’€, she continues.

Situated on Letsatsi Street on the premises of what used to be a primary school, Footprints is a 26-bed hospice with a short, yet eventful history of humble beginnings in 2004 on a piece of land owned by the council near the Orlando Power Station towers. Projecct manager, Mary Jwaai reminisces about how the centre began.  

‘€œIn 2004 we used two formal shacks. Formal in the sense that they had running water, they had electricity and they could be used. So, we put in 25 beds to admit people who needed help from us. It was so touching on the day we opened. We had a man carrying his 28-year old daughter on his back with HIV and AIDS to bring her to the hospice. But then that was the beginning of greater things to come’€, she says.

As well as being Pproject manager of the Footprints,72-year old   Jwaai is chairperson of the Soweto Retired Professional Society. With over 40 years experience as a nurse under her belt, she speaks of the passion that brought her and other retired nurses from Soweto back to work.

‘€œAt the time we didn’€™t even think about the financial aspects of the whole thing. We only thought of us being of service to the Soweto community. There was no time for us to look at ourselves. We had to look at South Africa and we had to look at: What is it that we could do to make changes in the country? We had the HIV and AIDS scourge. The country was on fire. We had to utilize ourselves to assist’€, she says.

Sixty-eight year old Victoria Seetsi, head of nursing services at Footprints, also came back from short retirement.  

‘€œI retired in December 2002 and I stayed at home for about six months. After six months I got bored. I wanted something to do. At home I was just sitting, eating, sleeping and all that. My hobby is gardening, (but) it was not enough. I had to go around, looking around to find out if there’€™s anything I can do because I had a lot of time in my hands’€, says Seetsi.

When we visited the hospice, the 26-bed facility had 16 patients and many have AIDS. Demand for beds is increasing. And as demand increases, so do the costs for caring for patients. The current global financial crisis makes it tough to run the centre, says Mary Jwaai.      

‘€œIt is very, very difficult. Let me just tell you that the Department of Health only subsidises five beds out of our 26-bedded facility. Only five!’€, she says, emphatically.

The Health Department funds the hospice for R420 000 per year and that’€™s not enough.

‘€œWe need about R1, 2 million. But I must say we have been very, very fortunate. We try and fund-raise to make up’€, says Jwaai.

‘€œThere are times when I sit around with the members of management and I say to them, ‘€˜I will be providing toilet rolls. What are you providing? Are you bringing food? Are you bringing sugar? Are you bringing mealie-meal? And because we are all committed, everybody brings something and we continue and we go on’€, she says.

Jwaai and her colleagues are aware that age is not on their side, but they remain determined to do something to help humanity.  

‘€œWe are retired, but not tired. We can still do work. We can still assist South Africa’€, says Jwaai.