Fairlands Home for the Aged and Retired is an established entity and it is registered with the Department of Social Development. The Home accommodates over 170 elderly people, many of whom receive 24-hour frail care nursing attention. Fairlands Home for the Aged is surrounded by a group of cottages, presently accommodating over 190 ambulant senior citizens, with a further 10 elderly citizens living closer to the Home in mid-care units.
Fairlands Home for the Aged has professional nurses, nursing assistants, and home carers on their staff who provide expert, professional health care for our residents when and as they need it. The Association’s Executive Committee, along with the Executive Director and Senior Management and nursing staff, form the backbone of the organizational structure needed to implement all programs for the home. The administrative staff and nursing staff, with back-up maintenance, gardening and laundry staff, assist the Management Team at grass-roots levels. Further assistance is also received from outsourced staff with cleaning, security, and catering. We are frequently visited by the local Service Organisations who provide entertainment for the residents.
A brief background
Fairlands Home for the Aged is situated in the suburb of Cambridge West in the city of East London, Eastern Cape.
In the 1960s, when the concept of an Old Age Home was being considered, the opinions and input of local churches, service clubs, elderly residents, and local and national governments were elicited. It is largely thanks to the passion and determination of a remarkable East London resident, Pauline Goldswain, that Fairlands Home for the Aged came into being. Pauline started her crusade in the early sixties when she worked as a census taker, walking from door to door.
She saw the plight of the elderly and, after a visit to a retirement village in Margate in 1965, she realised that this was what East London needed.
After countless hours of walking – Pauline did not drive! – and talking, the East London Senior Citizens Association was launched. Pauline, together with several other prominent citizens, prepared a scheme to present to the City Council, applying for suitable building land.
Seven months later, a 17-acre site in Cambridge West was found to be suitable and was sold to ELSCA for R2!
The motto, “We Care”, stands as a pledge which Fairlands has realized in the past and will endeavour to fulfil in the future.