Blessed Gérard's Malnutrition Clinic

Sundumbili, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa · opened 15 March 1993

The clinic was initiated within the young Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard by its founder member, the medical practitioner Dr Paul Titus Zakhele Thabethe, and his wife Nokuthula Marigold Thabethe, a qualified nursing sister. It combined immediate nutritional assistance with medical care, prevention and practical education for families.

How the original programme worked

Contemporary project documents written in 1993 describe regular special consultations for malnourished children. The children were examined, weighed and registered, treated medically where necessary, and their progress was documented. Parents and carers received instruction in basic health care, nutrition, hygiene, immunisation and disease prevention. Where poverty caused malnutrition and breastfeeding was insufficient or impossible, milk, baby food and protein-enriched porridge were supplied free of charge.

VenueDr Thabethe's surgery and, in the surviving historical account, St Benedict's Roman Catholic Church Hall, Sundumbili

TimeSaturdays at 10 a.m.

Age groupChildren from birth up to five years

Contacts named in 1993Dr Thabethe, Father Gérard and the sisters at the local clinics

More than food relief

The German project description, prepared in March 1994, stressed that hunger relief must do more than fill stomachs. It linked childhood malnutrition to poverty, unemployment, the social wounds of apartheid, inadequate education and disrupted family life. Its four-part response was medical assessment and treatment, health and nutrition education, prevention and social-work referral, and targeted free supplementary food. The programme was conceived without a fixed end date.

Documented scale

A 1995 report by Nokuthula Thabethe recorded 33 infants in the programme, including seven sets of twins. Consultations were then held fortnightly, with monthly weighing, medical examinations, nutrition advice, immunisation guidance and referrals to state social services.

Historical record

The surviving website documents the clinic through 2013. This marks the end of the available web record, not a proven formal closure date. Historical photographs and films are preserved in the project archive; images showing identifiable patients are used only with particular care.

Primary sources: HUNGER.SAM and HUNGER_N.SAM (7 May 1993); FEEDING.SAM and FEEDZULU.SAM (26 July 1993); FEEDENGL.SAM (27 July 1993); FEEDGRAP.SAM (7 September 1993); PROJHUNG.SAM (9 March 1994); BBG Newsletter No. 7 (Christmas 1995); historical project page; Clinic-chart.pdf.

Historical archive page: The original programme description has been retained and supplemented with details recovered from the contemporary source files.