Today was a beautiful day in Cape Town. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was around 80 degrees. If this is fall in Cape Town then count me in! Overall the weather has been great, though we’re supposed to be getting more rain as winter approaches here. No sign of that yet…
I only had one commitment all day today, so there isn’t much to write about. The class I’m taking on the AIDS epidemic’s impact on vulnerable populations met officially for the first time today. We took a bus into the township of Dunoon this morning to start off the class. Dunoon is a relatively new township, having been formed in 1996 which is after the end of Apartheid. It was formed mostly because of the influx of rural populations to Cape Town in search of jobs. It looked very similar to most of the other townships I’ve seen so far. As a part of the course, we are going to be working with a non-profit which is funded by both the government of South Africa and Chevron to provide home-based care to the communities. Our time with them was mostly an introduction and a chance for us to ask questions about what they do and how we can help. The organization was run entirely by Africans from the community of Dunoon. Six women had started the organization and gotten it organized. They began using volunteers to cook food and bring it to sick individuals in their community. From there they expanded to include not just food delivery, but also provision of basic home care services and became linked with a government program. Currently Chevron has funded the construction of a new building with a kitchen for them which we saw today.
It was really interesting to hear what some of the nonprofit staff members were saying about their organization and also to observe what was really happening. We had been recruited to this project previously because it appeared that the work was not being conducted adequately and wasn’t being recorded very well. We knew coming in that there were some issues that needed to be resolved. Our job is to figure out what those issues actually are and respond to them. Because I was looking for problems and areas that needed to be fixed, I saw a lot more than I would have otherwise. For example, we were told by one of the staff members that community health workers go between their 10 patients between 9 am and noon every day. Today we happened to be there from around 9:30 until noon. During that time, we saw several of these home-based care workers who were just sitting in the office. Some of them never left the office during that whole time. Obviously they weren’t actually visiting the houses that day, but why not? That is the real question. Some of them looked extremely tired and worn out. Is there something going on in their own home that is limiting their ability to go out and care for others? These are the questions that need to be asked and I’m excited that this class is going to give me a chance to ask those questions and learn what it really means to run a community based care program in a place where even your workers have struggles you may not understand.
After returning from Dunoon, we had a discussion section of the class and talked about what we had observed before moving into a more lecture based format of the course. I’m excited to see where these ten weeks take me in this course as well as the others I’m in. Tomorrow I’ll be at Philani for most of the day working in their remote clinic. I’ll let you know what my experience is like tomorrow!
Tim
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