“Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing you have received, but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.”
St Francis of Assisi
Our Story
In 2012, we started SD Care with a Nursing Agency where we supplied Care Homes in Surrey with Registered Nurses and Health Care Assistants and then Domiciliary Care where we look after vulnerable people in their own homes. In 2022, we expanded our operations to London with SD Care (London). We were always committed to provide deeply personal and compassionate personal care.
We abide by the following truths:
- We are committed to the Franciscan philosophy of healthcare which holds that all men are created in God’s image and likeness and deserve the greatest dignity and respect that we can bestow.
- We strive to follow the Franciscan values of humility, compassion and love in how we operate and provide our services.
- We are dedicated to meeting the unique needs of each person receiving care.
- We believe that healing has both physical and spiritual dimensions and providing holistic care involves looking not only after the body but nurturing the mind.
Above and Beyond
“Our carers are the best! They treat my mother B as if she was their own Grandmother. Before discovering SD Care, I was on the point of having her admitted to a care home as no one seemed to have the necessary humanitarian skills to match our care standards and family values. But these young folks are absolute angels with her: after their first visit she asked me if she was already in heaven.”
S O, January 2022
Heaven on Earth
“Our carers are the best! They treat my mother B as if she was their own Grandmother. Before discovering SD Care, I was on the point of having her admitted to a care home as no one seemed to have the necessary humanitarian skills to match our care standards and family values. But these young folks are absolute angels with her: after their first visit she asked me if she was already in heaven.”
M B, March 2021
An Ethical Business Model
At SD Care (London) we run our business by prioritising the needs of clients and staff using a healthcare model that is designed for providing compassionate care with maximum business efficiency. We work to high quality standards and leverage on information technology to enhance efficiency and automate business processes. We firmly believe that quality, technology and innovation are the key drivers of productivity. The ethics of our business are based on the belief that maximising shareholder wealth is not the best or only way to optimal use of resource. Instead, our objectives are to improve the human condition and the environment in everything we do. To this end, we have dedicated our cause to contributing as much of our earnings as possible to humanitarian causes. One of the causes we have identified is the support of the work done by Carmelite missionaries in the Central African Republic.
But what is the inspiration behind this model? …
“St Francis of Assisi taught me that there is a wound in the Creation and that the greatest use we could make of our lives was to ask to be made a healer of it.”
J Alan Paton
“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”
St Francis of Assisi
Footsteps of St Francis – The Inspiration
“I felt a burning need to bring back with me a memory of the sense of inner peace and joy I felt walking in the footsteps of St Francis in Assisi. He had pierced my heart with a need to help others like he did and transformed my mind to look for God’s beauty in everything that surrounded me. It was in an artist’s gallery in the cobble-stoned streets of Assisi that I caught sight of this painting of my beloved icon – the apotheosis of simplicity and humility that I so lacked and craved for in my life.”
Francis Mirandah – Founder & CEO, San Damiano Corporation (London) Ltd
Our Values
An Interview with Olive Paul, Registered Manager, SD Care Agency (London)
Hailing from the tiny city-state of Singapore, Olive co-founded SD Care in 2012 after completing her Masters in Healthcare Management at the University of Surrey. As part of her postgraduate training, she worked at the Eashing Ward for the Elderly at the Royal Surrey Hospital NHS Trust in Guildford, Surrey. Her work with vulnerable adults began soon after she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from Curtin University in Perth, Australia. In all, she has accumulated more than 3 decades of experience in social care and nursing in 3 countries – Singapore, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She brings diversity and different cultural perspectives to the work she does. Olive communicates in several languages including Mandarin which she speaks fluently.
Someone wise once said “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime… help someone…
…I found my happiness in helping people, helping others, especially the elderly and vulnerable in society. It has always made me feel good.”
Olive Paul
“The Franciscan model is Franciscan care… not just physical, but emotional as well…
…giving them happiness, and giving them that will to fight on, not just for themselves, but for their families… for the carer who sits with them, and tells stories and laughs with them, and is there for them in the middle of the night when they are frightened…”
Olive Paul
“From that cavern that was a furnace of glowing gratitude and humility, there came forth one of the strongest and strangest and most original personalities that human history had known.”
A Call to the Soul
The founder, Francis Mirandah has always admired St Francis of Assisi as his icon. He adopted the Franciscan healthcare model not least because it has inspired renowned healthcare institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and Wheaton Healthcare. Closer home the Mount Alvernia Hospital Guildford was founded and run by Franciscan nuns from 1935 till it was sold to BMI.
“It was a call to the soul that brought me to the sanctuary of San Damiano, hidden in the hills of Assisi in the picturesque Umbrian countryside. A simple place that speaks to one in a silence that you can listen to. For it was here that the figure of the crucified Christ called St Francis by name. It was also here where he composed Canticle of the Creatures.”
Francis Mirandah – Founder & CEO
Good Causes
We aspire to operate an ethical business model which puts humility and compassion to our fellow men and women above all else. We recognise that all people are created equal with a right to be treated with dignity and respect. To this end, our cause is dedicated to improving the human condition and quality of life so that all of mankind can appreciate the unfolding beauty and joy of Creation.
We are neither a charity nor a foundation as we believe that true entrepreneurial activity can be directed to serve a higher mission than traditional business aims.
One cause that we have dedicated is to provide both moral and financial support to a Carmelite Community involved in missionary work in the Central African Republic (CAR) amongst other good causes. Although the country has abundant natural resources such as diamonds and uranium, it remains among the 5 poorest countries in the world.
The Carmelite Community and Missions
Every year, San Damiano Corporation Ltd. makes generous donations to support the Missionaries with carrying out their projects. Notably, the Company has just renewed its purpose by sending financial aid to the Carmelitan Friars in the Central African Republic (CAR). Thanks to this donation, more than thirty young students will have access to education in 2023, and with it, enjoy the opportunity of a brighter future. Not only in the CAR, but also in some of the most impoverished areas of India, the Company has been showing its philanthropic commitment by contributing to the building of a new school with a $10,000 US dollars donation.