A village of pink-painted domes will open officially on Valentine’s Day next week in Roodepoort, outside Johannesburg, designed to house a population of 450 people, including children, living with Aids
Suzan Chala
South Africa’s first Aids village Sparrow Rainbow Village was designed by builder David van der Berg to reflect traditional building styles. The dome, he says, “originated in Africa, with grass roofs and now people go to Europe to see the domes. I wanted to bring them back to Africa.”
His domes are made not of mud and thatch but bricks. Small domes will accommodate three adults and three children, while cluster domes will house 12 adults and 12 children.
Built by Sparrow Ministries, on land donated by the Western Metropolitan Local Council, the village will provide space for active patients to live out the rest of their lives productively through income-generating projects.
The interdenominational Sparrow Ministries is not associated with any church or government. It founded a hospice, Sparrow Nest, 10 years ago to support destitute, terminally ill Aids patients in a former residential home in Roodepoort, but its population soared, and even the lounge is crowded with cots.
“There is need for a big-scale facility. Here they deal with the trauma of seeing the others die because they are in the same room. Sometimes children run around the house making noise when the adults want to rest. The village will offer space for children to run around,” said Lynette Nel, a psychologist at Sparrow Nest.
Sparrow Rainbow Village’s facilities will include a hospice and a clinic, pharmacy, kitchen and dining room. A self-supporting sector, separate from the village, includes a tea garden, workshops for pottery, jewellery and woodworking and a craft shop. Next to be built, once funds are raised, is an education and nursery centre.
Sparrow provides patients with medical, psychological, social and spiritual care. Sparrow Ministries executive director Reverend Corine McClintock says: “They survive with us in this time of respite with dignity, empathy and care. Over the past nine years we have said farewell to over 700 individuals, but, with dignity and peace.”
The staff honours their memories with little metal sparrows placed on a tree with names, dates of birth and death.
Patients are referred to them by the social services, children’s court and the child protection unit, and sometimes patients are found in mine dumps, in streets and in dustbins. “Sometimes even people from Animal Welfare stumble over patients when they go out looking for injured or neglected animals.
“Since we opened the hospice in 1992, the reality of Aids has been staring us in the face daily. From the hopeless, helpless individuals who stand outside our doors in the morning to the children with their brave smiles we seem to be surrounded by the biggest tragedy in human existence. Regardless of this reality, we refuse to be stunned into passivity by this silent killer. Our motto is and has always been: ‘Get up and live’,” says McClintock.