Orphans and vulnerable children

I just wanted to say a little more about the work that is going on here. The hospital has recently started an Orphans and Vulnerable Children project. The name is fairly self-explanatory but in general it seeks to help children who have lost their parents (often this means losing their mother as many fathers are absent) or who are at risk of losing their parents (often because the mother has HIV). It is also for those children who have become heads of household and those who are not accessing eduction.

The project is backed by The Donald Woods Foundation. Some of you may remember Donald Woods as the white anti-apartheid activist portrayed in the film Cry Freedom. It is not a doctor focused project and in many ways not a medically focused project so I have only been involved in some of the planning stages. It runs on a kind of 'Soup Kitchen' model which means that rather than targeting individuals and visiting their homes there is one day set aside each week at a local clinic and the word is spread that any children who might fit the criteria should come along. They are assisted with transport as much as possible and are given food during the day. School children come along when school has finished.

The day is staffed by the programme co-ordinator along with two nurses, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist each with an assistant, a social worker and various community health workers. The feedback I have had so far has been really great; the physiotherapy and occupational therapy team have done a great job with them. Thankfully not many of the children have been sick and none so far have tested positive for HIV. Many of the problems have been social, particularly that the carers of these children are not receiving the appropriate funding from the government. This is often because of a lack of documents or other red-tape. It has not been easy to solve these social problems but it is a learning curve for everyone and hopefully things will soon become a little easier.