1000 Hills Community Helpers

Home Based Care

Many local residents are in need of primary health care on a day to day basis. Most of these people are also in a position where they are unable to travel to their local medical facility for treatment. This is largely due to the fact that they are or have become immobile because of HIV/AIDS related illnesses.

The need for Care Givers in Home Based Care environment has become a vital cog in the fight against HIV/AIDS within recent years. With the correct training and education, these Care Givers fulfil an important role in our fragile healthcare system as they are usually the first to detect and treat secondary infections and illness related to HIV/AIDS.

A huge portion of the Care Givers duties is to educate local residents on the HIV/AIDS virus, especially with regards to prevention. Infected residents are encouraged to join a support group where counselling and post infection education can take place, teaching them how to live healthy lives while infected with the virus and to prevent as well as treat secondary infections such as T.B. and the flu virus. Failure to treat these secondary illnesses correctly will result in certain death for infected residents.

HIV/AIDS infected patients are counselled by Care Givers and bedridden patients are very often taken care of by the Care Givers themselves as they are still prone to become victims of discrimination and are stigmatized by their local communities.

Over 1000+ community leaders, volunteers and resource centre staff have been trained as 'barefoot' social workers to help provide assistance to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC's) in conjunction with Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (NOAH).