Infinite Hope: Thembalethu "Our Hope" Overview

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Thembalethu "Our Hope" Overview

Thembalethu, a project supported by the Winterton Methodist Church, is a response to expand local initiatives, caring for the sick and orphaned in the Amangwe Tribal Area (Loskop). Its vision is:

To share God’s love and hope to the communities struck by HIV/AIDS through training, empowerment and linkages to resources, assisting those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty.

The Situation:

* 40% of adults (officially, likely much higher) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa are HIV positive – making it one of the top global hotspots for the AIDS epidemic

*1.2 Million South African children have been orphaned by AIDS (UNICEF, 2005)

*25% of all South African children suffer from stunting due to malnutrition (UNICEF, 2005)

*The Amangwe Tribal Area has active volunteer home based caregivers (HBC), well-poised to advocate and care for the sick and orphaned in their communities, many have been caring for their sick and orphaned neighbours for over five years with very limited outside support or assistance.

The Project:

A group of well-trained HBC volunteers, working at the most grassroots level offer tremendous hope to alleviate the depth of suffering the Amangwe community is currently experiencing. As health promoters for the healthy, advocates for the sick and community caregivers for orphaned children these amazing volunteers can do a lot to bring God’s love and hope to this community.

Training home-based care givers: Training ranges from HIV/AIDS education, motivating people to get tested for HIV, Christian spiritual care, home hospice care, accessing and supporting patients on Anti-Retroviral medicines (ARVs), opportunistic infections, & community support of orphans.

Empowering community advocates: Informing and educating local volunteers in specified processes necessary to access government resources (birth certificates, ID’s, social grants) and assertiveness training to ensure that the needy receive assistance.

Linking communities to resources: Thembalethu works together with government community development staff, local hospital and clinics to better service the sick and orphaned in the Amangwe community. Interested HBC volunteers receive training and micro-loans to support home businesses (sewing, food reselling, etc).

Bringing assistance and hope to the sick and orphaned: HBC Volunteers help the sick access the medical assistance they need, help orphans obtain birth certificates and social grants, and sustain income-generating projects to provide an income source for orphans and vulnerable children.

Join me in Praying for the Amangwe Community

Praise God for the land granted us and the new building that we’ve managed to put up!
Pray for an end to the stigma and denial surrounding HIV/AIDS in the Amangwe community – For courageous local people to come forward and openly talk about the huge devastation of AIDS in their community.
Pray for God’s provision and equipping of Thembalethu as we move forward in the work God has called us to do.
Pray for health, provision and hope for the many sick adults and orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pray for provision and wisdom as we move forward to establish Thembalethu Care Centre as a place of hope and love in the midst of Amangwe Tribal Area.
Pray for the HBC mommas that they would continue to be encouraged by God’s word and the fellowship of other believers to continue to deepen in their faith journeys.
Pray that God would build up strong, godly Christian leaders for the Amangwe community.

Jargon Buster

Adherence Training - The required three-module (three day) training given to HIV+ people who are on their way to accessing ART. The three modules cover topics including basic HIV, healthy living with HIV, and ARV adherence. The focus of the third module is to emphasize the need for the patient to takes his/her ARV medication according to the prescribed schedule.

AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; starts out as HIV, then becomes AIDS as the immune system damage becomes evident and opportunistic infections arise. document.

ARV(s) - Anti-retroviral(s) the multi-drug cocktail of treatment for AIDS that converts it from a terminal to chronic condition.

CD4 count- The measure of immune system strength through a blood test. If below 200, the patient can access ARVs immediately, if above 200, the patient must watch their health closely, and recheck their CD4 regularly.

Drug Resistance - Poor adherence to ART can lead to a public-health emergency where HIV virus mutates to develop a strain resistant to the positive effects of the treatment.

Gogo - [Zulu] grandmother

HBC - Home-Based Care, a grassroots network of (mostly) mommas who voluntarily look after the sick and orphaned in their community. With good training, they can be the eyes of the community to identify possible HIV/AIDS patients, motivate and assist them in receiving support and treatment. They also have the potential of remaining life-long treatment supporters of their patients on ARVs to ensure good adherence to the treatment.

HIV - Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, a virus that attacks the immune system of a person. It often lives in the body of an infected person for years before it shows any symptoms.

Opportunistic Infections - Infections that take advantage of the body's weak immune system. Some of the most common in South Africa are tuberculosis, meningitis, pneumonia, and oral thrush.

TB - Tuberculosis, is a disease most commonly infecting the lungs, and the number-one killer of HIV+ people. TB has been around for centuries and today infects one-third of the world’s population, killing almost two million people a year.