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An estimated 14,000 people
live in Masiphumelele in simple core houses or informal
dwellings made of corrugated iron, wood, plastic and cardboard,
many overcrowded with poor sanitation and the most basic of
amenities. 2 500 residents are in formal employment and just
over 500 are in informal employment. Facilities are inadequate,
with only two overcrowded schools, no police station and an
understaffed Day Care Clinic. An estimated 50-60% of the
community is infected with HIV and/or TB. Unemployment, poverty,
poor housing and lack of basic services result in malnutrition
and poor health in a community, where women and children are
most vulnerable. Twenty per cent of the population is made up of
children younger than six years of age, one in every ten
children is underweight for age and one out of every four
children is stunted(Philani’s records).
A project is needed that
addresses malnutrition of children and supporting women without
education and economic independence who become especially
vulnerable to sexual and other abuse and with that also to the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
The need to reach those
destitute and unable to leave their homes has called us to
extend our efforts to identify and train field workers who visit
homes to identify needs, offer compassion, to organise home base
care and make referrals to appropriate services offered. The
field workers will go door to door to assess children’s weight
and well-being. Malnourished children (ages 0-6 years) receive
nutritional products at the clinic and will be monitored by
field workers to ensure progress and continuity of the
nutritional service provided. Women from the local communities
who have well-nourished and healthy children despite poverty,
so-called 'positive deviants', will be identified and trained in
order to advise and support other women in the community
regarding child health and child care issues. Together, our
Field workers and mothers identify resources and coping
mechanisms developed in the community and use these to improve
the quality of life of mothers and children.
A volunteer doctor will offer
ongoing medical attention.
An economic empowerment and
skills training programme is being set up for the benefit of the
mothers.
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