community health in action & song

Yesterday, 7.18.07, we helped out at a 1-day conference for the volunteer home-based caregivers. It was part information session and part appreciation day, since these 300 some odd women work tirelessly for no financial compensation. It was a wild experience of community health in action. It was seemingly a bit disorganized but at the same time, a very large affair. The building used was the actual church at the Mission. The Rock of Life Church, AKA "The Mission," here is very intertwined with many of the community health activities. It runs the Orphan Care project for instance as well as Philanjalo- the hospice for AIDS patients. Similarly, Philanjalo runs the volunteer community based caregivers work in the community. They are also associated with the public health clinics out in the community, which are government run.

The day yesterday began with the preacher speaking for quite awhile in Zulu, and when I say speaking I mean yelling. It was intense to not know what was being said- but it was religious in nature. There was beautiful Zulu songs throughout the day. Each speaker in fact, except Dr. Tony Moll, began their talk with singing: some call & response type songs, there was clapping and arm motions to accompany songs. This was beautiful & lively. It kept the women's energy up as they listened to information regarding their care delivery system. At a point during the day many of the caregivers came to the front of the room & sang a song in Zulu which was completely moving. They danced with the words, swaying & motioning their arms at certain points in unison. I learned during it, that the song was listing the anti-retroviral medications. It gave me goosebumps. This was health education & Zulu tradition in action, a beautiful merging of culture. At the end of the day there was food for the women to eat, for many it might be their only meal of the day. I helped with administrative tasks that were many & challenging in such a large group. I was asked to take photographs, mug shots if you will, of the new home-based caregivers so that they could get issued photo IDs to wear when out in the community. Above is one of my favorites- sorry it is sideways...

The day went on into the evening. There was the challenge of issuing money to leaders so that they could pay for each of the caregivers' transportation to & from the meeting. Many came from very far away. Thanks to Yale School of Nursing we also gave gifts of bread flour, mealie/maize meal & sugar, to each of the women. This in itself was a challenge, in organization- somewhat of a comedy of errors. We ordered the large (300!) quantities of each of these gifts on Monday (not nearly enough time, in out eyes) when we were informed of the conference, in only 2 days notice and instructed that would be the day to administer this gift. When we went with Mary to order the products at the Spar, nothing was written down, no numbers or time tables exchanged. Very un-American in style. Unfortunately the arrangements did not all unfold exactly as planned so we ended up giving vouchers to the women to take to the grocery store for these 3 items. What a day!