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REPORT FROM HAMBURG APRIL 2007
The health care system in Hamburg is improving with every trip we take – and this past trip in early April showed the biggest change and improvements since 25:40 has been affiliated with the Keiskamma Trust, beginning in 2004.
The most significant change is that Dr. Carol Baker is no longer employed by the Keiskamma Trust. Since the inception of the Trust she was paid a nominal salary and oversaw medical treatment for patients in Hamburg and in 3 other nearby clinics – Wesley, Norah, and Mpkweni. Now she is employed by the South African government to be in charge of HIV/AIDS medicine at Nompumelelo Hospital, which is in Peddie, a “city” about 30 minutes away from Hamburg. She also is responsible for all 29 clinics in the Peddie South District – including Hamburg, Wesley, Norah and Mpkweni.
This is the first step to Hamburg’s self-sufficiency. The Hamburg health care center – Umtha Welanga, dedicated to HIV/AIDS patients – is run quite well for a third-world, rural clinic. Eunice Mangwane and Mavis Zita are two elder nurses and AIDS counselors who are very well organized, well educated and well respected at the clinic and in the community. They have a team of several other “team leaders” who oversee the 32 AIDS monitors in the various villages throughout the Peddie District plus the nurses working at the clinic. Plus the Keiskamma Trust just hired Marjorie Holmes – a retired educator from Johannesburg, to administer the Trust.
In addition, a young, Toronto-educated nurse named Rachel Johnson has just spent a few months in Hamburg volunteering her time to help out in the clinic. She is committed to returning to Hamburg in September and staying for a year. She has energy, great ideas and a passion for children and youth. This is her on the right, training a handful of AIDS monitors at the Jama Clinic. 25:40 is paying her salary to work at the Hamburg AIDS clinic. Having her there is almost like having a doctor there – according to Dr. Baker.
The other significant improvement is that Nompumelelo Hospital has been approved to receive free anti-retroviral medicine for AIDS patients under the South Africa government program that distributes ARVs for free to anyone who needs them. This takes a huge burden off the Umtha Welanga Health Care Center in Hamburg. Nompumelelo is in the very center of the Peddie South District – so that people who live in far-flung villages do not have to travel as far to receive quality medical care for the treatment of HIV and AIDS. This will relieve a huge patient load for Hamburg and allow them some breathing space so they can concentrate on the patients within and in close proximity to Hamburg.
When 25:40 visited Nompumelelo Hospital in April 2007, we were fortunate to have brought with us a bundle of baby quilts and blankets hand made by the Holy Comforters, a group of quilters at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield, VA. We also had with us toys that Leah Zacaroli and Rebekah Hughes had collected from their “benefit” birthday parties in the U.S..
The pediatric ward of the hospital had just opened and the head nurse, Sister Msipa, was very excited when we asked if the children in the ward could have the toys and blankets. It turned out that Sister Msipa had just that morning presented the hospital director with a neatly typed letter requesting the South African government provide the pediatric ward with toys and blankets for the children. The hospital director had to turn down Sister Msipa’s heartfelt request because the hospital cannot appeal to the government for such materials – it has to rely on the public for donations.
The director, shown to the right with an embroidered blanket, explained how deeply disappointed Sister Msipa was and how Sister Msipa begged her to send the letter because the children so desperately wanted toys and special comforts – they were bored and needed cheering while they were staying at the hospital.
The director then waved her hands over the blankets and said, “The Lord Almighty has answered our prayers. We asked and He has provided.” Thank you Holy Comforter for being the answer to prayers at Nompumelelo Hospital!
This is the home of the Jubese family. Twenty-one adults and children live in this shack in disrepair. The shack is about 10 feet by 15 feet. Many of the adults and children in the Jubese family have HIV/AIDS. Granny Jubese is about 76 – she is the matriarch. She gave birth to 8 children, 5 of whom died as adults. Three are left, and one or two live in the shack with her – they are in their 30s and 40s. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren also live there – they range in age from 24 years to 10 months old.
I visited the Jubese shack in April 2007, during construction of a brick home 25:40 is financing. Mrs. Mavis Zita, an AIDS counselor in Hamburg, is overseeing health care in Lovers Twist, a very, very poor village close to the main road to Peddie and not a far drive Hamburg. Lovers Twist is situated near a truck stop, so there is a high incidence of HIV/AIDS from the sex trade there.
Mrs. Zita identified the Jubese family as the poorest of the poor in Lovers Twist. Indeed, Mrs. Zita is overseeing the construction of the new home. She has employed (through 25:40’s grant) a brick maker and several brick layers and other workers. The women of the Jubese family are fetching water and storing it in barrels for the workers to use to make the concrete floor and the filler between the bricks.
The house should be completed shortly. It is a three-room house, still modest for 21 people, but it is solid and will protect them from rain and cold. Protective shelter, along with good nutrition, is key when treating patients with ARVs.
When the house is finished, Mrs. Zita said the family will need a fence constructed around their property to keep animals out. She and others will teach the family how to grow vegetables so that they will have nutritious food to eat. They have not so far grown their own food because they have no fence to keep the animals out. 25:40 will also pay for the fence.
Mrs. Zita is also working with the Lovers Twist community – including the school principal – on an after-school soup kitchen for the 30 vulnerable children in the village she has identified. Some are orphaned or otherwise vulnerable. The soup kitchen will provide these children with a nutritious meal and some adult supervision after school.
25:40 has provided money already for construction of the soup kitchen and it is being held until the project goes forward.