March highlights human rights
The march started at Murchison District Hospital gate to Main Harding Road before ending at the Maveshe Community Hall.
The LGBTQIA+ community, Ugu Health District and Murchison District Hospital marched together to call attention to human rights for all last Friday.
The march also called on HIV/Aids and TB patients to take their chronic medication consistently in order for them to live a healthy and long life.
Ugu Health District HIV/Aids programme co-ordinator Xolani Mbangata said the national and provincial health department campaign aims to find 1.1 million people who are not collecting their chronic medications.
According to Mbangata, on their system patients have missed their collection dates and are nowhere to be found.
Also, they marched with LGBTQIA+ community because as health practitioners they treat all patients equally without discrimination.
“We also run outreach programmes to find those that are not taking their medications correctly. We educate our patients about the importance of adhering to their chronic medications as prescribed by health practitioners,” said Mbangatha.
The march started at Murchison District Hospital gate to Main Harding Road before ending at the Maveshe Community Hall, where health matters were discussed, and nurses assisted patients at various stations.
The hospital’s CEO Edwin Manyokole said he supported the march. “We are part of the Department of Health and we serve our local clinics and communities. We also conduct our own outreach programmes to motivate our patients to take their chronic medications correctly.”
One of the Ugu LGBTQIA+ leaders, Zinhle Ndimeni, appreciated the support they received from various stakeholders.
“The Department of Health marched with us to say no to discrimination of the LGBTQIA + community. It was successful and we achieved our purpose of conveying messages to fight against discrimination of the LGBTQIA community. We call on patients who are defaulting on their chronic medications to come back to their health institutions to collect their medications,” said Ndimeni.
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