Home based care
~ ~ ~ We have a team of dedicated workers under the Home Based Care team. Tanya de Vente, a local journalist, interviewed five ladies of the team and published her article in the August newsletter under the title: Caring where others look away Every day five women from the HOME BASED CARE under the responsibility of Ekukhuseleni Hospice go out to HIV-Aids patients in the Soshanguve and Winterveldt areas to do home visits. These five home based carers – Nosishe Dlamini, Kate Mapnya, Elisabeth Maubane, Rose Kgoete and Irene Nseli – are Christian women who do this work because for them it is a calling from God. I met up with these exceptional women at the hospice. Nosishe comes from the Eastern Cape. “I do the work of the Lord and I am a pastor.” She explains she has a desire to work with the people. “I pray for them to be healed spiritually. HIV/Aids is a pandemic and we have got to do the work.” Rose comes from Bekkersfort. She says their work is very important as they help those who are so ill they cannot wash themselves.” Nosishe says their work makes a big difference. The people are shy at first but later they share everything. The big problem,” she explains, “is that when people are HIV-positive they are abandoned by the communities and left alone. They are helpless. If the family doesn’t care for that person, they don’t have anyone who will take care of them.”
Although they often get rejected on their first visit, they don’t give up. They will go time and time again. “Sometimes we will go to the neighbour to ask for help or to keep an eye on the patient and to phone us,” says Rose. But Nosishe says after a few visits the patient will start to accept the home based carer and admit their status. “And after a few visits they even start to call you when they have a problem.” We have a kit for when we do home visits. Sometimes when we visit patients there is nothing for us to clean with. So we carry our own soap, washing rack and other products with us,” says Rose. According to Nosishe HIV is a very big problem in the community. “Many people have become ill because they earned money with their bodies. As soon as the community finds out about the virus, they just reject them. They get left behind in a house, sometimes totally alone.” The home based workers feel very strong about it that you cannot do this work if you are not a child of God. You need to be a re-born Christian, because these patients need prayer and somebody to read the Bible for them. It is rewarding for them to see a sick person getting better. Rose says that, when a patient gets better, he or she will spread the word to other HIV sufferers in the community to allow them to be helped. And if a patient dies, the work doesn’t stop. “We visit the family to give them counseling.” For these five women their work is a calling from God, this is what they want to do. Yes, they do need help. But for this work you need to have a passion, you need to be willing to do it and you can’t be here for the money. “We invite people to come with us and see what we do. Maybe if they see it they will like to help us and do it themselves.” “We would like to ask people to pray for our work,” says Nosishe. When they walk away from the hospice it is time to go home. They didn’t look tired, but instead their faces were all smiles. They are doing the work of God. ~ ~ ~ Part of the work of the home based care team is to educate people in following a balanced diet. On their first visit, a food parcel like the one in the picture below will be taken to the patient’s home. The HBC workers will explain how each item in the box is important to maintain good health. A balanced diet in conjunction with RIV medicine has helped many patients recover well enough to go back to work.
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The objective of the Home Based Care Programme is the support of the holistic, ongoing home based care of all those who are chronically ill. We do that through the provision of appropriately qualified and supervised caregivers, who are appointed on a full time basis by Khothatsong. Funding is used to train caregivers as well as provide nutritional food parcels, medicine and medical supplies to those affected and infected by HIV/Aids.
Nosishe explains that when they visit a patient for the first time the patient doesn’t know that he or she can disclose their status with the home based worker. “They don’t want to accept you. There is such a stigma to HIV that they are afraid to let us know. They believe it is a curse from God because they sinned. We tell them that this is not the end. God does not care how you die but He cares about your spiritual being, whether you were a child of Him or not,” says Nosishe.