Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids continues to be the leading cause of death in South Africa and the Western Cape. Afrika Tikkun hosted a TB Awareness event at the Afrika Tikkun Zolile Malindi Centre in Mfuleni as part of the Health Awareness month. The aim is to educate the community about TB prevention and how to manage and cure it. Other assessments such as family planning, pap smears, breast feeding, HIV/Aids prevention and ARV adherence promotion will be done on the day as well. Here is some information about Afrika Tikkun’s Primary Health Care programme.
Health systems, particularly in developing countries, inherited structures that were disease focused, and imbalanced in terms of distribution of its resources to the well off. Primary Health Care is a bottom up solution to ensuring the provision of basic health to all. It is focused on prevention and management of health problems in their social setting. Afrika Tikkun’s Primary Health Care programme in Mfuleni is one of the biggest in the Western Cape. It was started originally to support Afrika Tikkun’s comprehensive Cradle to Career developmental programmes for children and youth, and expanded when the government of the Western Cape approached Tikkun to extend its services in support of its priorities and objectives for the communities in the eastern sub districts. Following this, this programme was expanded to provide much needed services to families, from newborns to the aged and terminally ill within the communities of Mfuleni as well as surrounding areas.
Through its Community Health Programme, Afrika Tikkun has a documented reach of over 40 000 people annually (according to STATSSA most recent stats, Mfuleni has a population of 52,274). Services provided encompasses community integrated management of childhood illness for children under the age of five. In 2016, the programme conducted over 27 000 client consultations to children and mothers. The school health programme reaches all the primary and secondary schools in Mfuleni (reaching 8638 learners), meaning that children at school were reached with various services including height and weight monitoring, monitoring of road to health cards, eye screening and receipt of eye glasses etc..
Through home based visits (19 361 visits in 2016) the programme provides adherence support for HIV and AIDS, and TB clients referred by local clinics through the Department of Health. They also do wound care and palliative care to sick and terminally ill clients, and support the community to manage non-communicable diseases like diabetes. There is ongoing health promotion and awareness campaigns/activities where community members learn about handwashing and diarrhoea management and prevention; and are tested for sugar, blood pressure and HIV. Children are immunised and mothers can get pap smears and be educated about the importance of breastfeeding.
The programme distributes chronic medication to the community, with 10 502 medical packets distributed in 2016. That means that 10 502 trips to hospitals and clinics where clients have to wait for hours for medicines, was saved through the programme.
Afrika Tikkun’s HIV/AIDS programme has been a recipient of two prestigious awards given by the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health namely: The Gold Certificate for over 90% of ART clients remaining in care at 6 months and the Gold Certificate awarded for supporting the Delft Community Health Centre and for achieving over 85% client ARV adherence for 12 months.
The programme’s material impact includes a reduction in child and maternal mortality, and in child deaths and child abuse due to targeted diarrhoea and child abuse campaigns. In fact in 2015, no related deaths were recorded in our communities.
Over 200 jobs have been created and/or retained per annum and in service training has been provided to local community based staff on various health related disciplines. The programme is represented in local community health forums in Mfuleni and in Multi-Sectoral Task Teams in the City of Cape Town and local TB clinics.
Through its Cradle to Career 360º programmes, Afrika Tikkun aims to make a meaningful difference in the lives of disadvantaged communities in South Africa. We bring this forth by focusing on education, early childhood development, youth development, family support and nutritional support through structured programmes and strategic partnerships in all our Centres of Excellence. Primary Health Care is an integrated part of the development of children and youth.
SUCCESS STORY: Yoga improves the health of the community
According to the recently released District Health Barometer 2015/2016 the burden of disease on the state of non-communicable diseases has increased from 29% to 38% nationally, and is a top cause of death in South Africa. The Western Cape has a higher proportion of years of life lost due to non-communicable diseases (50.7% in the province and 49.7% in Cape Town) than any other province. Primary health care, with its focus on prevention and management of chronic and lifestyle diseases is essential to addressing this problem. As a demonstration of impact in the management of lifestyle diseases, Community Health Worker Nobuntu Mfegwana, tells this story. It also shows the strong sense of ownership that these health workers display in the health of their community. They are the unsung heroes of primary health care.
“As Community Health Workers (CHW) working in the area of Mfuleni we see a lot of clients with chronic diseases of lifestyle. We decided that forming a support group would be beneficial to the community. We went door to door, in the community to recruit clients to our support group. We checked the blood pressure and blood sugar of clients we found in the community. One man, “Michael” age 59, was one of the first clients we found. He had high blood pressure and was referred to the local clinic for further management. The clinic assessed Michael and put him on the appropriate medication. As the CHW working in the area, my partner and I educated the client and his family about which foods to eat and which ones to avoid. He was asked to limit the intake of salt and processed foods and to increase the amount of clean, safe water he drinks daily. We also counselled him on his lifestyle and encouraged him to stop smoking and include physical activity in his daily routine. We ensured that he understood the importance of taking his medication as prescribed as well as keeping up with his follow up appointments at the clinic. Every 3 weeks, we meet with Michael and the support group. During the session, we monitor his blood pressure and do health talks covering various appropriate topics. This is followed by a yoga session for exercise.
We are happy to report that his blood pressure is stable and he has quit both smoking and drinking alcohol.”
Afrika Tikkun – Mfuleni General Centre Manager, Lizo Madinga, and PHC Manager, Yvonne Arendse.
