Many people who are affected and infected by HIV and AIDS rely heavily on Home and Community Based for treatment and support. Therefore to ensure that this service is made available the Department of Social Development provides funding and support to organizations that offer a range of services to individuals and families infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
These organizations provide Home-based/Community-based care services to ensure that the basic needs of people living with HIV and AIDS are met.
The services provided provided by the HCBC workers are the following to
1. Care, counselling and support to people living with HIV/AIDS.
2. Addressing the needs of child-headed households.
3. Linking families and caregivers with programmes that address poverty
4. Providing food parcels and food supplements.
5. Establishing support groups and promoting information sharing.
6. Providing trauma and therapeutic counselling.
7. Encouraging the people receiving the care to maintain memory books, family stories and personal articles, as well as to draw up wills
8. Providing information to improve access to social, educational, housing, material and healthcare services.
9. Encouraging young people, women and men to become involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
10. Identifying and treating Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
11. Voluntary confidential counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV.
12. Comprehensive mother to child prevention (MTCT), including short course antiretroviral therapy and breast milk substitutes.
13. Identifying and managing opportunistic infections, including TB.
14. Providing effective anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs)
15. Providing palliative care including home based care (HBC) programmes.
The people who qualify to receive this treatment are
• Children, youth, women, older persons and people with disability.
• HIV/AIDS-infected and affected groups
• People living with HIV/AIDS and their families
• Child-headed and adolescent-headed households
• Households headed by older persons and orphans
However has much as government has a responsibility to ensure that these services are rendered , so do we have a responsibility towards those who are sacrificing their time and energy to ensure that members of the community are cared for and treated with dignity.
The Home Based Community Care Givers in the Province completed the Thogomelo Skills Development Programme which was accredited by the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority SETA.
The word thogomelo was chosen as it means “caring” or “taking care” in Venda, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Community caregivers are the backbone of community care for vulnerable children, yet their psychosocial well-being remains largely neglected. The Thogomelo Project addresses the often unmet psychosocial needs of caregivers and equips them to respond to child abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
Using activity-based, participatory learning to engage a diverse range of community caregivers, the project provides guidance on a comprehensive set of topics, including strengthening relationships and community, optimizing self care, accessing and mobilizing resources, responding to child abuse and neglect, and increasing HIV/AIDS literacy.
This is the first psychosocial support skills development program to be registered with the South African Qualifications Authority, thereby providing credits for learners to develop a career path towards a recognized qualification. It uniquely combines psychosocial support and child protection components to address training needs identified by learners.
The Thogomelo Project is built on three core principles that aim to foster local ownership and ensure the sustainability of these efforts:
• Embed the project in existing structures. By systematically linking with activities in the public sector and civil society, the project is building on current activities and helping to ensure sustainability.
• Comprehensively address the needs of orphans and vulnerable children. In addition to service provision, the project is addressing the critical areas of networking and advocacy to equip community caregivers with the skills to address the needs of children at all levels.
• Build on what works. The project is incorporating state-of-the-art thinking into project implementation.
Together, these principles, activities and resources are allowing communities to care for their community caregivers, providing them with the psychosocial support and skills they need to perform their tasks well. The program is also supporting community caregivers in promoting safe and healthy families – and, in turn, improving the well being of the many children who depend on them.
The Head of Department for Social Development Ms Liz Botes , who delivered the keynote addressed expressed her utmost gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the government for the work done by the Care Givers. She said “Ordinary members of the community are doing extra ordinary work by burning the midnight oil to ensure that community members who are frail , ill and unable to care for themselves are served with dignity and passion “ She also said that what makes it even more appreciative is that the Community Care Givers are only receiving monthly stipends of R 1500 .
The HOD said that “Education remains the key component of development and more especially Human Development . The journey of self development has started with the Thogomelo Skills Development Programme and it should not stop here and it dare not stop here “.
She made mention that there is a severe shortage of Social Workers in the Province , with approximately 138 Social Workers having to serve a population of 1,2 million people. It is therefore the vision of the Department of Social Development to ensure that these Community Based Care Workers receive all the necessary accredited training which can at the end of the day count towards a qualification where they can be employed as Social Auxiliary Workers or even Social Workers. This will then ensure that they are not employed on a stipend basis , nor a volunteers , but as full time employees .
In conclusion she said that social development is the heart of government, without social development our communities are not well. The building blocks of a developmental community starts with social development.
Issued By
Conrad Fortune
Manager Communications
Department of Social Development
0798730679
