Monthly Update: March II

Some of the members of the Zikahle family. 

10 Families

Our medical volunteers have been working on the Nutrition Program for a month and have enjoyed tracking both the Ezwenelisha and Khula patients. We have seen dramatic improvements in the majority of individuals taking the e’Pap nutritional supplement. Volunteers in March started to create gardens for some of the families to help them continue living healthily, beginning with the Dube family, who were healthy enough not to need e'Pap but still struggling to find enough food. 

We were saddened to learn that the mother of the Zikahle family died as a result of complications with breast cancer. We are continuing to help her family in any way that we can - we have delivered food parcels to the family and are continuing to supply the rest of the family with pap and the medical attention they require. 

On the bright side, Nonhlahla has been very compliant with taking the e’Pap and has had so much energy that it has been difficult to find her at home since she is always in town or visiting friends. Skinny Lady has enjoyed the added energy and was even able to travel to Mtuba to go shopping by herself, something that she has been unable to do for many months, and Melina has been feeling better and she has gained close to 7 kg. over the course of the month.  

Home Based Care

This month our sole medical volunteer, Teresa, was able to refine some of the improvements made to our  programme by our February volunteers. She had a very productive month, visiting many of our old patients while seeing some new patients.

The month began with volunteers bringing one of our young HBC patients, who is HIV positive, to Afterschool Club and watching her enjoy herself and play with other children. We are also happy to share with you all the Pendukile’s sister's large wound on her neck has started to heal and has decreased in size dramatically over the course of the month. The volunteers also visited with Veronique, a new HBC patient, many times this month. Veronique became a HBC patient after the volunteers and Nokwethemba found her sitting on the side of the road while they were beginning their rounds. During our visits she has been given suggestions on how to avoid constipation and been provided with nutridrinks, food parcels, and the comfort of our presence. Also, Gogo President’s leg wounds have healed and she has been feeding herself. 

In Ezwenelisha we have also a new patient, Sipho, who we met when the volunteers were intending to visit Gogo Breast Cancer. He showed the volunteers his right leg, which was covered in sores and bumps. We brought him to the clinic and advised him to check his HIV status. The volunteers have visited him twice during the month bringing him paracetemol, bandages, and non-stick dressings.    

Other projects

The month started off with our International Women's Day event, which was a great success. The community is still buzzing from the engaging speakers, poetry, dancing and music that filled the afternoon. We also held one more THAF shop this month, which raised over R700. 

March is an important month for our garden, as many of the crops we'll be giving out later in the year are advised to be planted during this month. As a result, the volunteers were busy planting carrots at the AMREF garden followed by beetroot, onions, and spinach. Beans which were planted previously have been growing steadily over the month. 

Great progress has also been made at our Support Group Garden in Ezwenelisha. The members have been taking turns helping to till the land, fertilize and plant carrots, onion, beetroot and spinach. We're excited to continue the garden in the coming months and plan to make gardening part of our weekly meeting at the Lifeline building. 

The container has been worked on throughout the month, and it's looking better than ever! We are proud to say that all the boxes have been looked through, the books have been unpacked, sorted and shelved. The volunteers even spent two days at the end of March building and painting bookends that will be placed in the container, as we're working towards decorating and organising the container over the coming weeks. 

The Khula clinic also approached us to provide our volunteers with some of our medical supplies they so desperately need each week. In the last week of March we received donations from the clinic that included bandages, antiseptic cream and gauze with much more to come, as they're going to add our list of needs to their order from Hlabisa Hospital. 

Khula Support Group also received a stall just outside of Khula in order to sell their crafts. We're hoping to refurbish the stall over the next couple of weeks to make it more comfortable for the ladies.