Monday, July 23, 2007

Home-Based Care Volunteer Profile

Ntombi Mayaba

Ntombi lives in Kwa Vala village has been caring for her sick and dying neighbors since 2005. She saw the assistance that her friend Elsie in neighboring eMandabeni was providing to the sick and orphaned, and decided to motivate her neighbors to do the same. Ntombi is now the leader of the KwaVala home-based care group, which consists of herself and two other active HBC volunteers.

Ntombi attends a Presbyterian church, and shows tremendous love for the patients that she cares for. When she was a child, she lost both of her parents at a young age, and well understands the impact that the love of neighbors and family made in caring for her after her loss. Her current HBC patients include women and men suffering from full-blown AIDS; a mother (32) on ARVs, but yet paralyzed for life from spinal tuberculosis, and orphaned children struggling after the death of a parent.