At the day hospital

Today we got ourselves up nice and early at 7.30 to head down to the day hospital and assist at the TB clinic. This early start is nothing compared to the many who head down to the hospital at the crack of dawn to start waiting. Whether they're seeing the HIV/AIDS practitioners, collecting prescriptions or having their TB medication administered, all involve a certain amount of stamina. Talking to some of the ladies waiting outside the HIV clinic, many with babies, they had arrived as early as us and were expecting to still be there at 3 or 4 o'clock before they were seen by anyone.

Grabouw carries both an extremely high TB and HIV contraction rate. Having HIV further increases your chances of getting TB, especially the multi-drug resistant strains. The TB patients have to collect their medication every day from the hospital, partly because some of them have injections but also to ensure that they are taking them.

Day hospital

empty pots!

We were there working alongside the CPF / Community Police force -  a combination of the police force and community representatives, working together to reduce crime in the local area. We were there both to raise awareness of what they do and provide food for all the patients with TB coming to take their medication.






Contracting TB is only the first hurdle in a long struggle - medication has to be taken everyday, otherwise the TB can mutate into a more dangerous strain. If taken without food (which as you can imagine, given economic circumstances, it often is) the medication makes patients sick. This often stops them from taking it again, which leads to further problems. The idea of the CPF being there is to provide free food for the patients to eat alongside their medication - both preventing the side effects that deter them from continuing treatment and making sure the medication has the proper effect.

While there an old, fairly frail looking man came to take his medication and at the same time was given an HIV test. The results come back in a matter of minutes, but thankfully his was negative. Many people in the local community are struggling with both and this complicates the medication. If you contract HIV and you are on TB medication, you have to finish your course of treatment before you can start on ARVs (anti retrovirals for HIV).

After we had given out all the food, we still had some left, so we headed up into Iraq and handed some out to the few little children that were passing. I recognised their faces from sports and they came running after us to grab their portion, which they immediately tucked into. While we were there we thought we'd check in on the children at the creche in Iraq - the conditions they work with are quite incredible - a wooden shack, it has papered walls and a cardboard roof that doesn't look like it could withstand any sort of bad weather. An environment that is very hard to keep clean, especially when only one lady runs it full time - the whole place is quite dirty and doesn't smell good. There are chickens running around with the children, inside and outside and there are too many babies to hold, so there are always a couple sitting on their own on the floor.

The children are always excited to see you but there were a couple of very ill little ones today, who hadn't been eating. Even the milk the babies did have was very weak so lacks the essential nutrients they need. The woman who runs it is wonderful and has an immensely warm heart, but she works with very limited resources of food, clothes etc. Its more a place for parents to leave their children when they need to work, rather than a creche - there is no stimulation or activities apart from toys that are donated. The two babies who were ill hadn't seen any sort of doctor so Tim said he would let Thembacare know and they would send a nurse up to check on them - I don't know what have happened otherwise. It further emphasised the fact that the children in Iraq have a very difficult beginning to a very difficult life.