Health team fights the spread of COVID-19 in SA

Contents

Introduction

Home Visits

Community Awareness Events

School visits

Sanitary Towels project

Cataract Project

Children in Need

Introduction

It has been such a challenging time as the year started and the country has still been facing an international pandemic since last year, nevertheless, I am so grateful firstly for the gift of life, secondly, for our Doctors as they were trying their hardest to get the covid vaccine to our area.  Times like these have taught me many lessons. I appreciate the people that I have in my life. I appreciate that I can continue to support people and never stop sharing love with everyone, and most importantly was to know that with unity we can conquer any situation and any circumstances.

Also, there are changes in my life. In the beginning of the year, I moved to a village in Mankosi. I am very excited to be here and have more responsibilities. I took on the director rile for TransCape and this position got me involved even deeper into every single project we run. It proves that I have grown over the years and that I can handle challenges and also became a good leader. My long term goal is to have every young person in the villages to get involved in shaping their future and also be aware of the challenges of daily life so we can one day have a HIV free generation, no more teenage pregnancy, avoid drug and alcohol abuse also being more aware of their wellbeing and career.  

New beginnings: I have been settling in Mthatha Mouth village, forming good relationships with the headman and chief, building relationships with the schools, building relationships with the home-based care centers and support groups, creating good relationships with the staff and making TransCape NPO more visible and a safe place for the community at large.

In the last 6 months, I have been implementing the following projects. HIV and AIDS education at homes, HIV and AIDS education at schools, Khwela womxn seminar, Sanitary towels project and Cataract project.

HIV&AIDS House visits:

 I have visited Ngcobo village where I have given education and counselling about HIV/AIDS prevention and adherence to medication and treatment. I have also been educating the community members about the prevention of covid-19. Giving educational booklets written in both English and Xhosa.  The response that I got from the community was very positive as they were welcoming. I was so grateful for the people to open their homes to me despite the bad Covid situation. The people saw so much need for education. While doing home visits we have adhered to the covid regulations and sanitized regularly and kept a social distance. In total, I did 42 home visits.

Community awareness days

Education about HIV/AIDS is still very important. We see that some areas have a much higher infection rate then others. We decided to partner with another project calls Masenze Youth against Drugs and Alcohol Abuse. Together we are targeting the youth of hot spot communities.  

We discussed HIV/AIDs testing, condom promotion for both male and females, STI screening, and most importantly support and giving encouragement to those that are already on treatment to avoid stigmatization and defaulting of medication.

We also gave more education about Covid 19. I observed that the young people are too relaxed about the regulations and restrictions. Most think that Covid 19 has stopped spreading. More information was needed! We gave out Covid 19  educational booklets written in the Xhosa language and motivated people to make sure they comply with the rules and the law. We encouraged them all to wash their hands regularly and use sanitiser whenever they can. The third wave in South Africa was very bad and the president had to implement another Lockdown level 4 for 1 month. The problem is that people in rural areas don’t get news. They are very shut off from media.

We also did much-needed education about the Covid 19 Vaccine. Slowly it is available for people here as well but a lot of people are hesitant to take it. They have heard a lot of stories about vaccines and the conspiracies are very bad. I gave more education on the effectiveness of the vaccine and gave a lot of example on why everyone needs to take it. It is still difficult to convince people as there are a lot of rumours about it but little by little people are coming to terms with it and we will continue educating.

A small Community workshop was given at the village of Luqolweni. We had a very productive community awareness together with the help of the headman.  We worked well together in organizing the people and also making sure that we don’t have too many people because of Covid 19 rules. The event was at the headman’s home, where education about HIV/AIDS was done. It was the first in that village and people were very excited and eager to learn. They asked a lot of questions. I also gave them a lot of educational pamphlets about HIV/AIDS and COVID 19. 

School education:  

I have made good friendships with the schools in the community and was lucky to be given one day a week in Sikhoma junior school for health education. I meet with 36 learners, females and males from the age of 14 to 18. Our topics are  HIV/AIDS, prevention of teenage pregnancy, help with drug and alcohol abuse. In our community culture, it is still not allowed for parents to talk to their children about such topics. They find them sensitive, so it makes it very difficult for the children to have a safe space to share experiences and ask questions. This is one of my favourite projects as I click very well with the youth. On my visit days of education, I am getting time alone with them in group sessions but also on one-on-one sessions. They feel free to ask about anything that they want to know, without fear to be judged. 

Khwela womxn

Khwela womxn is a group of young women training others on personal development tools. Myself (Zee), Andisiwe, and Khanyisa attended this workshop. This is a dynamic group, making mentors and experts available to young womxn through a community-based safe space. It is called a "sisterhood circle” where womxn and those identified as womxn can exist in spaces that are safe, open, and inclusive. We loved this workshop because it empowers us as young female leaders in our community and in the work we are doing! We feel personal development is very important and we felt a change in the energy we are putting into our mission as project managers. We would love to attend more of these capacity-building workshops!

Sanitary towels

We distributed 3000 sanitary pads to women and young girls in 8 different communities. This project has a huge impact on the productivity of women and keeps young girls in school even if they have their monthly menstruation. 

Cataract project 

We are working together with the organization called Grace Vision. They have mobile eye testing trucks. They arrange operations for those with eye infections/cataracts. We make sure people get to their appointments by arranging transport to and from the venue. In May 2021 we identified and transported 10 old age people to the hospital to get their eye surgery. This project is just delightful to watch. The old Gogos and Tatas get into the van blind and come back seeing. It is amazing. 

Children in Need

The children in need program started in the year 2017. The purpose of this program is to look after vulnerable children and orphans. We also added old-aged people to the program because they are often lonely and the people who are supposed to take care of them are not taking the responsibility. In 2017 we started with 15 children helping them by buying clothing items and food for them. 

  For old-aged people, we are cleaning their houses, washing their clothes, fixing their walls and floors, and cooking their food for them. We use our own cleaning materials. We also have volunteers from the community who also help in looking after these old-age people. We are working as a team. 

In June Andisiwe encountered an old grandmother who is 72 years old and stays alone. She does not have an ID book, therefore she can’t access an old age grant. Furthermore, she is paralyzed from the waist down. We don’t know why as the medical records are missing. Andisiwe will take her to the office of Home Affairs to apply for her ID. This will help her to at least get an amount of R2000 per month as old age grant.

In the first 6 months of 2021, Andisiwe selected 15 children from Mankosi who require help. The children were referred by neighbours and also the teachers of the primary school. Andisiwe assessed the situation of each family and then prepared clothing parcels. We are lucky to have some second-hand clothes that were donated to us by guests from Mdumbi Backpackers. 10 of the 15 children came from very poor households. Andisiwe found that those families don’t have an income because no one in the family has employment. Furthermore, she found that the children don’t have a birth certificate. Therefore the family can not claim a grant. Andisiwe we plan a trip to Home Affairs again to assist the families to apply for the birth certificates. 

The Children in Project is still helping Cinga by buying her school uniforms and clothes. She still needs this help as her parents are still not working. We want this clever little girl to stay in school. Her school results are very good and she finished top of her class every term. She is doing grade 3 this year.

The Children in Project still supports the 3 orphaned boys. We buy food for them every month so have something to eat. Avela the oldest one tried to write his matric last year but unfortunately failed. We offered him to attend our AET class but he decided to rather look for a job. He left Mankosi for a while looking for work in town but came back empty-handed. Now he digs sand for the sand miners occasionally and also gets piece jobs in the village.  

Militha is in grade 12 now and is trying very hard to prepare for his Martic at the end of this year. The project is renting a very small and affordable little room for him next to the High school, so he doesn’t have to walk 2 hours a day to get to school. This way he saves time and can invest in his studies. We are happy to report that he passed his first term!!

Militha and Avela still don’t have an ID book. Andisiwe is still trying very hard to drive the process but it has been now 3 years since TrasnCape got involved and still no positive results have been achieved. 

All in all, the children in need project are doing well. Mankosi community members are so relieved that Transcape can help the poor of the poor a lot.

Conclusion

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. This will summarize the last year well as we feel hopeless and then there is hope. We will feel scared but we have to be strong for others. We feel angry and then we have to keep calm and collected to find solutions. 

Thanks to your support we can carry on with our well-needed work. 

Thank You!

Yours faithfully,

Zintathu Luvalo

Health Councillor and Managing Director