St. Joseph's Home

St. Joseph’s Home Internship

Position:  Social Work / Education & Counseling

Duration of Internship:  10-12 weeks

Number of Available Positions:  3

Children at St. Joseph's doing experiential learning in the classroom

Imagine yourself working with a 2 year old boy named Moses who is terminally ill with a chronic lung disease; although the doctors have given Moses a poor prognosis, you are able to brighten his day by making him laugh, reading to him, and providing him with nurturing and therapeutic input.  Does this sound like something that appeals to you? Well then you should consider an international internship with St. Joseph’s Home in Cape Town – the world’s most vibrant, beautiful city!

St. Joseph’s Home is a Provincial Aided Hospital located in Montana, Cape Town, that provides convalescent care and medical services to hundreds of children who suffer from chronic and debilitating illnesses.  Its vision is to “provide sustainable, relevant and high quality care to underprivileged children who are medically fragile and disabled.”  The Home was established in 1935 in response to a critical need in the community: the Great Depression in the 1930s had left a heritage of suffering, including significant numbers of children suffering from chronic illnesses and living in destitute circumstances on the Cape Flats.  With a track record of over 70 years of service delivery, St. Joseph’s continues to fill a critical social need, particularly given the crisis of HIV/AIDS that has hit South Africa over the last decade.

For children like Moses, St. Joseph’s is a godsend, because at the Home they receive all the medical care, nurturing, and therapeutic input so necessary for their wellbeing and future development.  Over the past year, 213 chronically ill children were nursed at the Home, the majority of whom were between the ages of 6 and 13 years.  Most of the children admitted to St. Joseph’s suffer from infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and TB, while the second most prevalent diagnoses are Diabetes and cancer.  Many of the children at St. Joseph’s cannot survive at home due to the lack of resources in their community or parental neglect of their medical condition.  For these children, St. Joseph’s provides:

    -24-hour Nursing Department that provides care for children who cannot be nursed at home

    -Multi-disciplinary intervention, in order to address the overall needs of the child

    -A well-managed and well-maintained facility with an energetic, dedicated team of social

     workers

    -A Sunflower Ward for HIV-Infected children, as well as four medical wards

    -A Physiotherapy Department

    -An Occupational Therapy Department

    -Formal education up to Grade 7

    -A clinical setting for training of external tertiary institutions and NGOs

If you are studying or interested in a career in social work, education, counseling, or nursing – or if you just have a passion for working with children – then you consider at internship at St. Joseph’s Home.  As an intern, you will have the opportunity to participate in a range of services offered by St. Joseph’s, depending on your particular areas of interest.  Your involvement might range from one-on-one care of a bedridden child to play activities with the children, story telling, helping out as a nursing ward assistant, or assisting in the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Departments. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to brighten the lives children from disadvantaged areas in Cape Town while gaining meaningful, hands-on work experience in a foreign country.  An international internship with St. Joseph’s will look fantastic on your resume, and will afford you an invaluable opportunity to broaden your cultural, personal, and professional horizons – so go ahead and apply today!

Lauren and Sarah from the USA have a blast with their buddies at St. Joseph's