MALAWI: Home based care eases pressure on public health sector
By, IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, August 5, 2006
MZUZU - Faced with the devastating impact of an HIV/AIDS epidemic compounded by abject poverty, Malawians have eased the pressure on state hospitals by caring for chronically ill family and neighbours at home.
A home based care (HBC) project in Northern Malawi has assembled 225 young volunteers in the region's nine districts to provide community based support to homes and guardians looking after people living with AIDS (PWAs). The aim is to ease their suffering and prolong their lives.
Levi Soko, the acting project coordinator for HBC told PlusNews that the project was also looking after 4,000 orphans - providing them with school fees, school uniforms, learning materials and, where necessary, bedding.
"We are supporting 860 affected families who are hosting chronically ill patients. By the end of the project [our target is] 3,000 guardian families. The goal of the project is to create awareness of HIV and AIDS prevention and transmission messages, and also to support guardians that are looking after the [PWAs]," Soko said
It is hoped that the project, which began in 1996, will be able to support 5,000 orphaned children by 2005.
The HBC concept, which gets village committees to organise volunteers to help families care for people laid low by AIDS, is becoming increasingly popular throughout Malawi. The country's 22 district hospitals, including four referral hospitals, are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of sick people.
HBC minimises the number of times a person would have to be hospitalised.
In Malawi, AIDS kills 70,000 people every year. It is estimated that between 850,000 and one million people now carry the HI virus that causes AIDS. An indicator of this is that 75 percent of Malawi's recorded 27,000 tuberculosis cases in 2001 were HIV positive, according to hospital sources. It is also estimated that 38 percent of the people who have HIV/AIDS are in the most productive age group.
Jennie Mueller, head of Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), a project that helps communities implement programmes to cope with AIDS, said HBC also helped to educate families about HIV/AIDS.
"It helps families understand the illness and people can die with dignity at home. It provides hope and a way to cope and it helps the grieving process because the community would already be reaching out to that family over the period of illness," she said.
Soko said, when possible, the HBC project also offered vocational training such as embroidery, mat making, welding and carpentry to orphans.
"If one community member has a workshop, we request them to offer internship. We do not have a formal structure to accommodate all of them [orphans]. We're using community resources that are on the ground," he explained.
The HBC project is supported by the Catholic Development Commission of Mzuzu Diocese with funding from Catholic Relief Services and a British-based catholic organisation, CAFOD. Soko said the project also worked with other organisations with related projects such as the District Social Welfare and District AIDS Coordinating Committees.
"They really assist us in implementing our activities. We also interact with all the other churches. As of now, we have nine home based care providers, also known as parish coordinators, and two field officers who monitor the care providers," Soko said.
The volunteers had mobilised their communities who donated items such as used clothes, maize flour and sugar while the HBC project provided other sundries, such as basic drugs and vitamins. With the assistance of the volunteer network, the project aims to enable guardians to better manage and care for HIV/AIDS patients.
"We provide foodstuff and Likuni Phala [a porridge] to boost the patients' nutrition. Sometimes the volunteers provide bedding, depending on the needs of the family. But most of all, counseling is emphasised so that the guardians should not lose hope," Soko explained.
However, Soko noted that the project was being undermined by various factors. Chief among these was that communities still discriminated against PWAs.
"This makes it difficult for people to declare their sero [HIV] status," he said.
Another was that in some instances community members demanded to be paid allowances for attending project meetings. "The problem is escalating and the resources ... are becoming too little," Soko said.
Despite these challenges, he said the project's volunteers were very dedicated.
"What it means is that they are serving their neighbours, they're serving their brothers and relatives," Soko said.
Source: http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1400
MZUZU - Faced with the devastating impact of an HIV/AIDS epidemic compounded by abject poverty, Malawians have eased the pressure on state hospitals by caring for chronically ill family and neighbours at home.
A home based care (HBC) project in Northern Malawi has assembled 225 young volunteers in the region's nine districts to provide community based support to homes and guardians looking after people living with AIDS (PWAs). The aim is to ease their suffering and prolong their lives.
Levi Soko, the acting project coordinator for HBC told PlusNews that the project was also looking after 4,000 orphans - providing them with school fees, school uniforms, learning materials and, where necessary, bedding.
"We are supporting 860 affected families who are hosting chronically ill patients. By the end of the project [our target is] 3,000 guardian families. The goal of the project is to create awareness of HIV and AIDS prevention and transmission messages, and also to support guardians that are looking after the [PWAs]," Soko said
It is hoped that the project, which began in 1996, will be able to support 5,000 orphaned children by 2005.
The HBC concept, which gets village committees to organise volunteers to help families care for people laid low by AIDS, is becoming increasingly popular throughout Malawi. The country's 22 district hospitals, including four referral hospitals, are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of sick people.
HBC minimises the number of times a person would have to be hospitalised.
In Malawi, AIDS kills 70,000 people every year. It is estimated that between 850,000 and one million people now carry the HI virus that causes AIDS. An indicator of this is that 75 percent of Malawi's recorded 27,000 tuberculosis cases in 2001 were HIV positive, according to hospital sources. It is also estimated that 38 percent of the people who have HIV/AIDS are in the most productive age group.
Jennie Mueller, head of Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), a project that helps communities implement programmes to cope with AIDS, said HBC also helped to educate families about HIV/AIDS.
"It helps families understand the illness and people can die with dignity at home. It provides hope and a way to cope and it helps the grieving process because the community would already be reaching out to that family over the period of illness," she said.
Soko said, when possible, the HBC project also offered vocational training such as embroidery, mat making, welding and carpentry to orphans.
"If one community member has a workshop, we request them to offer internship. We do not have a formal structure to accommodate all of them [orphans]. We're using community resources that are on the ground," he explained.
The HBC project is supported by the Catholic Development Commission of Mzuzu Diocese with funding from Catholic Relief Services and a British-based catholic organisation, CAFOD. Soko said the project also worked with other organisations with related projects such as the District Social Welfare and District AIDS Coordinating Committees.
"They really assist us in implementing our activities. We also interact with all the other churches. As of now, we have nine home based care providers, also known as parish coordinators, and two field officers who monitor the care providers," Soko said.
The volunteers had mobilised their communities who donated items such as used clothes, maize flour and sugar while the HBC project provided other sundries, such as basic drugs and vitamins. With the assistance of the volunteer network, the project aims to enable guardians to better manage and care for HIV/AIDS patients.
"We provide foodstuff and Likuni Phala [a porridge] to boost the patients' nutrition. Sometimes the volunteers provide bedding, depending on the needs of the family. But most of all, counseling is emphasised so that the guardians should not lose hope," Soko explained.
However, Soko noted that the project was being undermined by various factors. Chief among these was that communities still discriminated against PWAs.
"This makes it difficult for people to declare their sero [HIV] status," he said.
Another was that in some instances community members demanded to be paid allowances for attending project meetings. "The problem is escalating and the resources ... are becoming too little," Soko said.
Despite these challenges, he said the project's volunteers were very dedicated.
"What it means is that they are serving their neighbours, they're serving their brothers and relatives," Soko said.
Source: http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1400
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 3:52 pm
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