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St John carries out its operations from ten major centres located in various cities and towns across South Africa, namely Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Fish Hoek, Grahamstown, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Port Elizabeth and Somerset West.
We have become well known for training in first aid and home based care. Our advanced community health work courses concentrate on HIV/AIDS, care for the elderly, child and youth as well as the Community Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (a UNICEF initiative), and community development.
We run various community service projects, often partnering with the South African Government and provisional authorities. We support the Millennium Development Goals and, wherever possible, endorse the words of our former Bailiff Grand Cross, the late Nelson Mandela to “Give a better life to our fellow citizens in need”.
With St John Caregivers networking within communities, the provision of care, treatment, support and preventative activities, referrals, monitoring and case management have improved. St John Caregivers play a crucial and valuable role in ensuring access not only to vital health services but also social welfare, regardless of the ability to pay. Where necessary, St John Caregivers assist in the transport of the sick patient to a suitable facility.
The Prior of St John in South Africa is Archbishop Emeritus, The Reverend Desmond Tutu.
Like the rest of the worldwide family of St John, our Brigade comprises volunteers of all ages and from all walks of life, trained in first aid by St John. They offer their skills at all types of gatherings where members of the public may need first aid. Organisers of sports meetings, social gatherings, school events etc., regularly call on the St John Brigade to perform first aid duties at their functions.
At present we have over 1 200 uniformed adult volunteers, 600 youth members and 170 community volunteers who attend to the injured and ill at various national and local sporting events.
In the past year our volunteers have given more than 104 400 volunteer man-hours to the South African public. Members of the St John Volunteer Brigade are on call to the South African Military Health Services (SAMHS) during times of national emergency or disaster. Currently, the volunteer arm of St John operates 20 ambulances and 5 transporters nationwide.
St John operates 13 eye care clinics in major cities and town around the country. Each clinic performs professional eye testing and dispenses spectacles to those underprivileged members (most notably the elderly and school children) of the community who are unable to afford commercial rates.
In addition, these clinics diagnose cased where patients require corrective surgery such as cataract operations and refer them to eye hospitals for treatment. This screen process enables the hospitals to concentrate of their primary function of surgery.
During the last financial year, St John Eye Care Clinics examined over 20 000 patients, dispensed more than 14 800 pairs of spectacles and referred almost 1 450 patients to provisional hospitals for specialist treatment or surgery.
“St John’s focus on primary health care, especially amongst the poorest of the poor, and its capacity to tap the most generous and caring human impulses, gives it a special place in our hearts” – Nelson Mandela, October 1998.
Operates in:
Established in: 1883
Non-Profit Organisation Number: 000-814
Public Benefit Organisation Number: 18/11/13/1718
Section 21 Company Number:
Trust Number:
Contact person:
Phone: (011) 646 5520
Fax: (011) 646 5845
Physical address: 19 Woolston Road, Westcliff, 2193
Postal address: P O Box 7137, Johannesburg, 2000
Website: www.stjohn.org.za