Resource centre for Fairyland
2008-01-24
THE sod turning ceremony of the proposed Butterfly House centre in Fairyland, Dal Josaphat, will be held on Saturday at 11:00. The first sod will be turned by councillor Harisha Douman. “The aim is to establish a community-based response and support centre in the Fairyland area for adults and children affected by the HIV/Aids epidemic, says Elizabeth Scrimgeour, CEO of Drakenstein Hospice under whose auspices the Butterfly House will operate. Funding came from an unexpected source. A group from a family counselling agency in South-Trondelag, Norway, travelled to a workshop in Cape Town. They visited Drakenstein Hospice and were so moved by what they heard and saw that they decided to do something to help. The group supports the building of Butterfly House which is to be a day care centre for children and a work centre for adults. “Volunteers from Norway will come to Paarl during February to help with the construction work and local people will be trained,” she said. “The Butterfly House idea started in April 2005 at Drakenstein Hospice, who cares for hundreds of patients in the Drakenstein health district,” said Scrimgeour. The need was identified for an interim centre where children can be looked after and adults can be empowered with skills and confidence to look after their children. After visiting various day care centres and consulting widely, the Butterfly House concept was born. “It is a place to refer patients who need to find a way to ‘live’ with a previous diagnosis of dying.” Various ‘wings’ are envisaged in the future as places of safety where orphans and vulnerable children can be looked after by foster mothers with the assistance of an educare worker, guided and supported by a social worker and a teacher
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