Lifesaving programme under threat

Keiskamma Trust which survives on donor funding is facing a crisis as money dries up for it Community Health Worker programme

By Ntsiki Mpulo, SECTION27

Keiskamma Trust, an Eastern Cape based  health organisation, praised around

the world for its incredible community work which has saved thousands of lives, is in danger after funding cuts. Ntsiki Mpulo spent time with a community worker to give us a glimpse into the important work they do in a province where the health system is unable to deliver.

“The magnitude of the HIV/Aids challenge facing the country calls for a concerted, co-ordinated and co-operative national effort in which government in each of its three spheres and the panoply of resources and skills of civil society are marshalled, inspired and led.”

This was the rallying call of the judgment in Minister of Health vs Treatment Action Campaign, in 2002. Following years of AIDS denialism, the court upheld the constitutional right of all HIV-positive pregnant women to access healthcare services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).

Dr Carol Hofmeyer, a medical doctor who had settled in the Eastern Cape town of Hamburg, heeded the call, and began administering lifesaving ART (anti-retroviral therapy) to the people surrounding the village. The programme started with a handful of community health workers supporting the AIDS hospice. They now have 80 community health workers who serve 47 villages and 13 clinics in the Amathole District area surrounding Hamburg, including Peddie and Nier Village.

Nontobeko Twane, a community health worker based in Mgababa village, started as a volunteer at Keiskamma Trust in 2006. She received training as a community health worker, and was then employed on a permanent basis. She hasn’t worked elsewhere, and the stipend she receives is her only source of income.

She tested positive for HIV in February 2008, and was initiated on treatment in May 2008. She has steadfastly taken treatment since that day, and continues to do so today. She understands the challenges related to taking chronic medication for the rest of her life, and is thus able to provide the support that her patients need.

She is based largely at Keiskamma Trust, which is the temporary home of Hamburg Clinic. The Trust stepped in and offered its premises as a temporary measure when the 30-year-old Hamburg Clinic building collapsed in 2012. Through this collaboration, the Keiskamma Trust community health workers have developed a close working relationship with the clinic sisters.

The services provided by the Keiskamma community health workers include home-based care visits, regular reporting to nursing staff on critical cases, and monitoring adherence to (but not limited to) ARVs and TB, hypertension and diabetes medication. Now, these services are in jeopardy, as the Keiskamma Trust faces a funding crisis.

Following the termination of a donor-funding agreement, the trust is no longer able to pay the community health workers who are part of the programme, which requires R1.2 million per annum in operational funding. The Eastern Cape Health Department has agreed to provide sufficient funding to pay 10 community health workers per annum. This falls far short of the funds required to pay stipends for the 80 community health workers in the programme.

The Keiskamma community health workers are the cornerstone of the success of the health programme in the area; without them, women such as 27-year-old Zukiswa (name changed) face certain death.

Zukiswa lives in Mgabaga Village with her husband of five years, Moses (name changed), and her two children – a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old, son Her husband works as a mechanic, fixing cars in the yard of their small home. Zukiswa does not work, and the family’s only other source of income is the child grant received from the state. However, this is insufficient to feed the entire family; it covers formula and nappies for the youngest child, and a modest amount of food. Zukiswa’s emaciated frame is testament to this fact.

She says that she has always been slight in build; but what is clear is that Zukiswa is wasting away. She tested positive for HIV in 2015. She was initiated on treatment, but has since stopped taking her medication. Her reason for not taking her medication is that there is no food in the house.

Zukiswa cowers on the corner of the couch, the only piece of furniture in the lounge, while Nontobeko perches on a bench opposite her. Though it is not stated openly, it is clear that Zukiswa is afraid of her husband. Moses has also tested positive, but has opted not to start ARV treatment. This increases the chances that Zukiswa a will become re-infected if she does not resume her treatment.

On numerous occasions, Nontobeko has explained to Zukiswa that taking her medication means that she will increase her life expectancy, so can she raise her children. She has on occasion requested support from the Department of Social Development, to provide food parcels; however, this has only been a stopgap measure. And as Zukiswa continues not to adhere to her treatment, Nontobeko is fearful that this young mother will not survive the year.

Nontobeko, like the other 80 community health workers employed by Keiskamma Trust, provides a lifeline for the women she looks after. Without her, many would be unable to access health care at all.