Notes from the Field

I haven’t really discussed the work I am doing to this point, but I now feel it is necessary to fill you in as I am sure a number of my experiences will be taken from encounters I have in the field. So here goes…I am working on a Home Based Care study that is seeking to examine the quality of care provided by community care givers to clients.

For those of you that don’t know, home based care organizations provide sick individuals the assistance they need in the home. This requires carers (community care givers) to enter these individuals' houses and provide a variety of services including: washing clothes, counseling, training them on how to take medications, cooking, ect. Basically, anything the person can’t do for themselves or doesn’t know how to do- the carer either shows them how, if they are able, or does it for them. Carers in this area of South Africa provide care to people with TB, malaria, HIV/AIDS, mental health problems, disabilities, chronic illness, and the elderyly. Most of them also care for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Basically, the carers support the health system that is already overburden, especially in rural areas.

So my job for the first few months here is to write up an overview of the situation in the area I live. This entails me compiling a list of all the home based care organizations (easier said then done) and then visiting them to talk with them about their organization. This is one of the great parts of my job. For the month of February I will be visiting all 42 organization. Each organization is about a two hour drive since the dirt roads are so bad.

So now that I have given you a very basic picture of what it is I am doing, I of course have to share the most amazing story of the week. First, let me preface by stating each story I hear in the field is more impressive and inspirational than the last. The people I have met here have a sense of selflessness I have never seen. The love and devotion that abounds in the communities I am visiting is awe-inspiring and at times overwhelming.

That being said, I visited a women on Wednesday who was about 60 years old and retired – so she said. As we began talking she told me that her family had kicked her out of the home as a little girl because her father didn’t want her anymore. She was forced to leave her community and settled in with her Aunt and Uncle two hours away. Her Aunt soon became very sick and the family thought a spell had been cast on her. The Uncle sent her Aunt and her away so as not to bewitch the rest of the family.

For the next 15 years she lived taking care of her sick Aunt in a hut she had built for them. She began describing the house she built; “It had four tin walls,” she beamed. “And I lathered the outside of the hut all by myself in two days- with mud from 2 km away since that was strong mud. On my way home one day I decided I could make a door out of small wooden logs people had left behind.” And so she did. “My roof was left over tin I found down the road and I tried my very hardest to lift 4 huge rocks to hold it in place.”

She was six when she built this hut and instead of describing something that sounded like an awful 50 square foot room with no light, you could tell she was full of pride that she could build a house. This house that protected her and her Aunt for the next 9 years. While taking care of all the cooking, cleaning, and her Aunt, she also found the money from a local church to go to school. She said her Aunt always encouraged to get an education.

As her Aunt began getting more and more sick she started taking solace in the other members of the community she had met. Many of these people were also living in similar situations. After her Aunt passed away, she decided to make it her mission to help those who were not provided the type of care she was able to give to her Aunt.

This is how she got the idea of starting a home based care center. With no money and little education, she worked with the community to build a one room building. She then started working with volunteers she recruited to provide services to people in need around the community. To this day, receiving no outside help from funders (only the community), she has managed to keep her organization alive. Pouring everything she has into it, she now has 20 volunteer caregivers and 4 volunteer admin staff that work full time to meet the needs of many of the sick people in her community. They are caring for over 1,000 people in the community- people who would probably end up dying lonely, painful deaths without her assistance.

I asked her how she is able to motivate all 24 of her staff to come to work each day for 8 hours without pay. Her answer was simple - everyone here has been affected by death and grief and if no one is willing to help those who can’t help themselves, who is ever going to help them when they are in need.

These people are amazing! I usually hug every one of the staff members after our visit. Also, they always remind me to come back and visit my new "mom". I then quickly rush out to my car to make sure they are not packing it with the little food they have (they love sending you home with food – it is a cultural thing).

So that is a typical day for me! These individuals are an inspiration to me and really make me stop and reflect on appreciating the small things in life.