HIV/AIDS Home-Based Care Programme
Sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10% of the world’s population, but is home to more than 60% of the population living with HIV. Southern Africa remains the epicentre of the global AIDS epidemic. Despite recent improved access of antiretroviral treatment and care experience shows that the rapid increase in HIV/AIDS is increasingly having a profound adverse effect in the business sector.
Started in 2002, Teba Development’s home based care service (HBC) was designed as a response to the increased numbers of mineworkers retiring because of ill-health. The organisation has developed HBC services in five major mineworker sending regions, namely Eastern Cape, northern KwaZulu-Natal and Free State in South Africa, as well as Lesotho and southern Mozambique.
Purpose
To provide care and support services to HIV/AIDS infected and affected ex-mineworkers, their families and communities.
Objectives
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- To provide palliative care and support to ill-health retired mineworkers through care supporters and nurses;
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- To mobilise local communities through support groups;
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- To broaden the beneficiaries to include the broader community, especially in areas where there are no on-the-ground services;
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- To provide a comprehensive service and link PLWA with income-generating initiatives, food security and skills development interventions;
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- To expand the programme to Swaziland, the North-West and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa.
HBC Process
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- The project offers a fee-for-service or capitation fee options to the mining companies;
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- The companies inform Teba when their workers are medically retrenched;
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- Teba fieldworkers then visit the respective homes of the ex-mineworkers to notify and prepare the family members for the impending arrival of the sick person;
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- Qualified nurses supervise the fieldworkers and local HBC supporters who make regular visits to the families of the medically needy;
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- The target beneficiaries are provided palliative care including medical kits, referrals for treatment, VCT, family awareness education and care for orphans as appropriate;
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- They are also assisted with application for government grants.
Achievements
- Since its establishment, the programme has reached more than 5 000 people. In South Africa the project is implemented in the Eastern Cape, Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces. In Lesotho it is implemented in Maseru, Mafeteng and Leribe districts and in Mozambique in the Gaza district;
- There are approximately 78 care supporters (in addition to Teba’s fieldworkers) and ten retired nurses contracted directly to provide services to the clients, and outsourced services supply approximately another 100 care givers and 10 nurses;
- In last year alone (2005) a total number of 440 households were supplied with HBC kits and 3 500 PLWHA and their families were provided with services such as palliative care, referrals for treatment and VCT, counselling, family awareness and education and care for orphans;
- Additional funding was received from CIDA in 2005 to scale-up the services to the broader community in the Eastern Cape.
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TEBA Limited
TEBA Limited is a service organisation primarily responsible for the recruitment of mineworkers for the South African mining industry.
In addition, it carries out a vital role in ensuring the payment of various benefits (as well as savings) to workers and their families in rural areas of Southern Africa.
