Project Update: EPap progress chart

A lot of progress has been made over the last month on our 10 Families Project. Not only are people’s health still progressing with the use of EPap, but we also have started to build gardens for our families and have made some furniture donations, courtesy of The Happy Africa Foundation.

We have added two new people onto the EPap programme, John Nkomo and Veronic. Veronic has been extremely ill over the last few months and has undergone a blood transfusion with little success. Her current weight is 49.9kg with a bicep width of just 23cm. We are hoping that over the next few weeks we can get her weight and energy levels up. John is 27 and currently has a BMI of just 14.5. (18.5 is classed as underweight). John is HIV positive and has a CD4 count of under 10. This is exceptionally low and his general health is reflective of this. At the start he weighed 51.2kg and his bicep width was 18.5 cm. Within the last two weeks he has gained 2kgs and is ecstatic about how much more energy he now possesses.

Some of our original families are doing very well and are not in need of EPap. However, as some of them still suffer from food shortage due to a lack of funds, we have begun building gardens for these families. The Dube family was the first recipient of a garden, which volunteer Miriam and staff member Zakhele worked on just last week. In the coming months we hope to expand the programme and start giving more tangible advice to our patients about how to live positively. We are also discussing planting bananas and other crops which will yield fruit all year round, to provide the families with a consistent, reliable source of food and income.

EPap progress chart

This chart gives a brief overview of how some of our recipients of the EPap are doing. The majority have gained in both weight and bicep width but they all have gained in their general health and the amount of energy they now all have.

Name	Start Date	Weight at start	Current weight	Bicep at start	Current Bicep
Mrs. Makhosi	15/02/12	40.5 kg	47.6 kg	19.5cm	22cm
Vena Zikhale	01/02/12	53.8 kg	55.2 kg	27 cm	26.5 cm
Mcabangeleni Mthembu	01/02/12	49.1 kg	68.2 kg	21.5cm	28 cm
Meline Dhembe	01/02/12	41.9 kg	51.2 kg	22.8 cm	26.5 cm
John Nkomo	11/05/12	51.2 kg	53.8 kg	18.5 cm	18.5 cm