Masoyi Home Based Care Project Report October 2015 

Masoyi Home-based Care, started in 1997, expanded rapidly into a multi-layered and holistic project providing multiple services and activities to adults and children, manned by local volunteers.  Current programs include support for over 1,000 orphans and vulnerable children; feeding programs; early childhood development centers; after-school care; vegetable gardens; youth peer education; youth skills development center project; young moms support; visiting over 400 patients.  We have a core of some 90 local volunteers. 

The Home Based Care project comprises of a very committed team, a team that makes their clients one of their priorities. Care workers who always brave the scorching African sun and rainy season, going out there, and some walk for miles and even during weekends just to make sure they reach the clients and make sure that they are fine and looked after.  

With the support that the Home Based Care receives from Bright Hope World, it enables us to reach more people in the Masoyi community and able to serve and save more lives. 

Recent Events

Visits

During the month of October we did 371 home visits to all the seven areas of the Masoyi community, giving Direct of Treatment (DOT) support to those on TB treatment and TB screening to family members. 13 new clients registered in the program, 21 were counselled, screened and tested for HIV. Only one tested positive and was referred to the clinic for a CD4 count test. 17 family members were screened for signs and symptoms of TB, one was referred to the clinic for a sputum test.

We had two deceased clients and five recovered. 

Activities 

- Home visits to seven areas
- Cleaning and bathing of clients when necessary
- Feeding clients 
- Monitor patient’s medication
- DOT support to patients on TB treatment 
- Door to door campaigns 
- TB screening and follow-up 
- HCT (HIV Counselling and Testing) during home visits and at the MHBC premises HCT room  

Support Groups

During the Home Based Care support groups we are making sure that we address the following issues, which we always believe that by so doing it will bring reduction from the issues facing the Masoyi community, especially that of HIV and many other diseases.  

HIV and Treatment 
This topic mainly covers things like; how is the virus transmitted as well as how to prevent it and the healthy lifestyle people have to live. We also advise them to take treatment as according to their doctor’s prescription. And also bring awareness on how to tackle some of the side effects many of them are facing due to the medication that they are taking, as well as making sure that they don’t share treatment with anyone. 

Nutrition 
On such sessions we encourage our clients on eating a balanced diet and also encourage them in terms of taking lots of water in a day. 

Prevention 
This session covers things like; not taking alcohol when on a treatment, not mixing their clinic medication with the traditional ones, and also how can each of us help in terms of making sure that we protect ourselves and the people around us.  

Acceptance & Disclosure 
In these sessions we cover things like; disclosing your status to people that you trust most and how to do that, and also the steps one has to take in terms of disclosing to anyone. 

On 28th October we had a support group on Treatment Literacy, as well as on Prevention. We had a good attendance of 53 HBC clients.  

Although we have been running support groups on these topics over the past years, we believe that we have to continue to do so and emphasize addressing this issues. The aim is to make sure that we continue to bring awareness to the Masoyi community in terms of how people can go about getting treatment for whatever disease they might have, HIV in particular.  There are so many people living with the HIV virus in the community but most of them do not take their medication as prescribed by their doctors. Take into consideration that most of the people living in the Masoyi community still believe in getting healed by traditional medication, one of the issues we are facing is having people who are mixing medication that are not supposed to be mixed. However we trust that as we continue addressing this issue there is much that is going to change and we have already seen many people who are starting to adhere to their treatment and also educating their peers to do the same. 

There is nothing that is more inspiring than having someone who has been through or is going through what you are going through share his or her story to you. How did they go about it in terms of tackling some of the challenges they have been facing? During those support groups our clients share with one another and that helps in terms of encouraging one another as they learn from each other. 

When it comes to prevention this is something that we should all consider doing and advocating for. Hence on our latest support group, this is one of the issues that we were addressing and bringing awareness about. We are making sure that people learn much in terms of prevention, how to protect themselves and the people around them. Such is done so that they are able to help and encourage their partners to use condoms. Not only do they learn about the male condoms, but also the female condoms. Hence we are making sure that during our home visits we distribute male and female condoms to the community.  

Personal Stories

One of our clients is a 49 year old male client at Numbi. He was diagnosed HIV positive in 2013 and is already on treatment but he is not responding well on his medication. He defaulted on taking his medication because of not having enough food. He has lost hope with his life and is also mixing treatment with traditional herbs. 

Another 39 year old male client who stays at Phola was diagnosed HIV positive. He has also had a stroke. He defaulted on his ARV (anti-retroviral) medication due to not having enough food and now he is not continuing with the treatment. At the clinic they refused to re-admit him because it is the third time he has defaulted. 

One female client defaulted on the ARV treatment for a second time and now she is bedridden. She lives with her two children, a 7 year old daughter and a 11 year old son.

Plans for the Future

We will continue encouraging people to adhere to their medication and to also take them as prescribed by their doctors from the various clinics that we are working with. We will also be continuing on encouraging people not to default from their medication. 

What we have learnt over the years is that there are some people in the community who are claiming that their medication can heal HIV, and there are also people who are struggling to accept that they have HIV or any other STI’s. Hence you have people mixing medication from the clinics with African medicines from traditional healers.