Commitment to helping paves the way
328 community care givers graduated as nurses on Tuesday morning.
Her commitment to helping others paved the way for her to go from, “zero to hero,” believes Siphiwe Nyawo.
Tuesday morning marked a double celebration as Siphiwe became one of the 328 community care givers to graduate as nurses, after being trained by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. Siphiwe also celebrated her 34th birthday the previous day.
Like the other community care givers who were afforded this opportunity, Siphiwe says she never imagined that she would be a qualified nurse when she volunteered to tend to the sick in the rural community of Hlabisa many years ago.
“I walked from home to home, visiting the sick simply because I wanted to help people. I wanted them to get better and I wanted to improve the quality of their lives,” said Siphiwe, who carried out her duties as a community care giver for an entire year without any pay. For three years thereafter, the mother of two continued to work as a community care giver for a stipend of between R1 000 and R1?500 per month.
“There was a 46 year old woman that I used to visit who grew thin and frail and was always coughing. I convinced her to go to the clinic where she was diagnosed with TB. At the clinic they provided her with the drugs that would make her better, but I continued to visit her every day to ensure that she took her medication timeously and to see that she had had something nutritious to eat. Eventually, she got better and now she calls me her life-saver. This is what makes me happy,” Siphiwe continues. “Now that I am a nurse, I will be able to provide my own family with quality health care as well. I also come from a very poor home.”
MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, described the graduation ceremony hosted at the Farmer’s Hall on Tuesday morning as, “History in the making.”
Dr Dhlomo said it was a difficult decision to train community care givers as nurses, who showed a passion for the work even though none of them possessed a matric certificate “These dedicated and selfless community care givers, however, have given support to our frail and terminal patients over the years. I believe that these people who have shown care and compassion will positively impact on how patients are treated at health care facilities,” he said.
According to acting principal of the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing, Mrs JT Makhathini, 2?640 nurses have graduated this year, and the institution has seen a 16 per cent growth in the number of speciality nurses who qualified.
