22 Mar 2016

The Masukwane Home-Based Care (HBC) committee extended a helping hand to patients, orphans as well as People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) by showering them with gifts to help ease their distress.

Ms Florence Busumane from the North East District Health Management Team (DHMT) applauded the committee, which carried out the task in collaboration with the Village Health Committee and the Masukwane Clinic for their good work; saying their passion to help the less-privileged as well as their resilience in the face of challenges had paid off dividends in their endeavour to put a smile on the faces of fellow residents.

Ms Busumane noted that HBC volunteers had over the years proven to be valuable to the efforts of the health care system to reach out to clients.

She observed that due to various constraints, medical personnel could not effectively reach out to patients, but that the ability of volunteers to go house-to-house checking on residents had helped in enhancing efforts to help those in need.

“They have and continue to contribute greatly to the health sector’s ability to serve its clients effectively,” she said, and appealed to them to not allow challenges to stall their efforts.

On another issue, Ms Busumane raised concern about reluctance by men to test for HIV with their partners as well as their apparent lack of support in situations where their partners had to make use of the PMTCT programme.

She implored men not to label PMTCT a women’s programme, but to understand that they too were affected as they had played a role in pregnancies that had brought women into contact with the programme.

The Masukwane HBC committee chairperson, Ms Chandapiwa Mudongo informed the gathering that despite being limited in numbers, they had resolved to work relentlessly in helping the community they were serving.

Ms Mudongo stated that they had been able to hand out gift packs to various deserving people in the village for the past four years.

She also observed that though initially their only target was patients under their care, they later realised that orphaned children and PLWDs also deserved further assistance in addition to what was availed to them through different government programmes and initiatives.

On the other hand, a representative of gifts recipients, Ms Wandani Masunga expressed gratitude for the assistance they had been given.

Ms Masunga, a student at Masunga Senior Secondary School, said the gesture was proof of the community’s love as well as acceptance of them.

She implored fellow students to work hard and not allow prevailing circumstances to stop them from reaching for the stars academically.

She said academic excellence and desisting from engaging in destructive habits would go a long way in ensuring a better future for them. Ends