About St Francis Care Centre

Our Mission

"Our mission is to provide a haven for the terminally ill where they will be nursed in a professional and comfortable environment whilst their physical, spiritual, emotional and social needs are catered for with care and dedication."

Back to Top

More About St Francis Care Centre

St Francis is a registered non–profit organisation and can provide an 18A Tax Certificate. The Centre is multi–cultural and multi–denominational and we do not turn away anyone in need of our services.

St Francis Care Centre was established in 1992 by Fr. Stan Brennan, a Franciscan Friar, after he witnessed the lonely, sometimes agonizing deaths suffered by many people in South Africa dying of AIDS, abandoned and rejected by their family and friends.

Since the beginning, St Francis Care Centre has mobilized resources to help patients and families in the informal settlements of Ekurhuleni:

• The Hospice — A residential medical facility for AIDS sufferers. There are 48 adult beds available.
• Children's Section — The Rainbow Cottage provides a home for 30 abandoned or orphaned children from birth to 7 years of age.
• Home Based Care — The centre has an active team of care helpers providing home based care to persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
• St Francis Clinics — Two clinics which provide free counselling, testing and ARV's when necessary.

Back to Top

Board of Governors

Back to Top

Founder and Director - Father Stan Brennan OFM

Fr. Stan Brennan was born in County Roscommon, Ireland in 1929, the seventh in a family of ten with three sisters and six brothers. He joined the Franciscans in 1948 and was ordained in Rome in 1956.

After asking to be sent somewhere where he could help the poor and disadvantaged he came to South Africa in 1958, first to the Seminary in Pretoria but after six years he again asked to be allowed to work with the poorest of the poor.

He was assigned to Stirtonville on the East Rand which was indeed desperately poverty stricken, a parish of migrant mineworkers. Beginning with the building of a church, St Francis Parish Church, he has since worked tirelessly for over 41 years to uplift his community with education, skills and compassionate intervention and assistance wherever the need arose. In the beginning he was supported by his Franciscan Brothers, family and friends, then sought assistance farther afield from large companies and corporates.

During the apartheid years he fought many battles for the continuance of his programs, many of which were against the political thinking of the time. Nowadays the battles are mainly financial. The needs are legion and money is short.

He lives now in the friary at St Francis Care Centre, serving as chaplain to the hospice and continuing his work with the poor.

Back to Top