Delivering Nutritious Food

The Sizanani Outreach Programme features a home based care component where teams of caregivers go out and visit children and families living in remote areas. Many of their clients simply do not have enough food. Delivering food that is high in protein helps prevent malnutrition. A healthy, nutritious diet is also an essential for anyone on antiretroviral treatment.

Mbali

Mbali is one of the original children at the Centre and is now in high school. She is a dwarf and her little body endures a lot. The most difficult thing for Mbali is finding shoes that fit her properly. She has very wide feet with a very high arch. The shoes she has to wear cause her to be in a lot of pain. She wears house shoes (slippers) when she is at home but cannot wear those to school. I was thinking that some Uggs (sp?) or something super soft that she can sink in to, might be a bit better. Not sure if those can be found this time of the year in the USA, but it is worth a look. Other ideas????

Sr. Eobarda

Sr. Eobarda goes to the hospital to visit the patients every day… without fail. There are so many terrible stories of people dying alone at the hospital. When she knows someone is at the end, she does her best to be there with them. Five people died in just a matter of a couple of days last week. Sr. Eobarda doesn’t say much, but she did talk about that. It was hard on her. I imagine that every day is pretty difficult, but she goes because she doesn’t want them to be alone at the end of their lives. I really admire her for that.

Sizanani Outreach Programme

I am creating a website for the Sizanani Outreach Programme (SOP.) Once I am done, they will edit/approve the content and I will post the site when I return to the USA (internet is too slow to do it here.) In writing the content, I have been reading, reading, reading… mostly reports that they have written for various grants. The work that Sizanani has done in this community in the past five years is so impressive. Here are some stats:

Since its beginning, SOP has trained 49 care givers from the local community in home based care. Six of these care givers have also been trained to facilitate peer education programmes; 14 were trained to perform voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing (VCT/HCT); two completed auxiliary training in social work; 27 were trained to take affidavits, and 68 were trained in memory box work. Training and employing individuals from the community has a direct benefit in the community where unemployment rates are estimated to be greater than 90 percent.

To date, SOP has served 6,523 clients of which 3,417 are under the age of 17; 756 are orphans; 66 families are designated as child headed households; 330 are growing up in grandparent headed households.

In 2009, the SOP staff conducted 12,853 home visits. The staff also provided 1,573 clients with voluntary counseling and of those, 923 clients were tested for HIV/AIDS. Two SOP social workers placed 50 children in foster care, providing security to children who had been orphaned or who had been abused. 549 clients on antiretroviral treatment were monitored monthly at five primary health clinics by the SOP medical doctor (Sr. Ellen.)

38 child-headed family homesteads were renovated to ensure safer, more secure living conditions for these children who are particularly vulnerable to violence and exploitation. The SOP provided lunch to more than 3,500 children in the community through food programmes at four local schools in 2009.

Client families received 1,475 food parcels during the year. In addition, SOP staff helped these families secure the legal documents they need to access support from the local government (e.g. foster care grants, child support grants, disability grants, and old age grants) in order to develop a secure, sustainable source of income.

SOP supported four school gardens, a community garden, and the installation of 12 new family gardens in 2009.

In addition, the Sizanani Child Care Centre is home to 30 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC’s.) The SOP seeks to place children in traditional homes whenever possible. However, some children in the community are particularly hard to place in foster care due to medical needs, physical disabilities, psychological trauma, or other special needs.

Watering Can

A young man shows us how he waters his garden.

I just love these chickens.