Funding cut threatens HIV patients

Compassion and caring for the sick and poverty stricken children and their immediate surrounds are what motivate the women of St Philip church in Shakaville, KwaDukuza who run their weekly feeding scheme.

Started more than ten years ago by founder TB Mthetwa, the St Philips HIV/Aids Ministry and Social Outreach has a mission to serve HIV/Aids and TB sufferers as well as orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), and has been supported by the North Coast Courier Orphan Fund from day one.

Every Wednesday the ladies cook up three huge pots of food, on gas, and the biggest pot outside on an open fire. Then the people come to be fed. The OVCs follow after school, just up the road. The records reveal 57 children between 18 months and 12 years and 63 adults.

For many, this is their only satisfying meal of the week. Project manager, Patricia Khumalo wishes they could do more.

“The best thing we do is feed the people. For this we have to thank the Courier Orphan Fund which supplies the money for the food we prepare weekly. We also take sick people to the clinic and children to Home Affairs for birth certificates. ”

For a number of years they were able to supply food parcels (staple food for a month) provided by the Department of Social Development, to people taking anti-retrovirals. The department has this year, withdrawn support, saying there is no money.

Khumalo is very frustrated with this turn of events.

“It is well known that this anti-retroviral medicine cannot be taken on an empty stomach, to do so is a death sentence. But what can we do with our limited resources? For many HIV patients, this meal on a Wednesday is now their only proper meal of the week.”

When asked what the public can do to help, Khumalo has a long list of needs. First prize of course would be food parcels for the needy. Then it would be helpful to have a jojo tank which would facilitate starting a veggie garden. They need a fire extinguisher and a first aid box, a fridge, a stove and the list goes on.

They have also been told, rather unhelpfully by the Department of Health, that they should have cupboards to store the food. At present the bags of samp and mielie meal take up floor space in the office.

If you would like to help in any way Patricia Khumalo can be contacted at 071 635 8228.

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