January 25, 2006
Death: The untimely visitor
Home Based Care update of Deemount, Harding
By Mr. Heinrich Botes
Every second month, a team from the DFL Head Office visits Deemount, a hamlet outside of Harding in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa. This place is hardly found on maps…and not advertised on tourist brochures.
The deadly HIV-virus, however, found this place and is causing absolute havoc in the homes of this warm and friendly community…people who live simple lives.
Doctors for Life International is working in this area, caring for terminal AIDS patients in their homes and the orphans in a day care centre. Dr Willem Vlok, a DFL member and Heinrich Botes, Coordinator of DFL’s Home and Community Based Terminal Care Program, met with some of the 200 community volunteers trained to assist families to care for their dying relatives
.
The meeting centred on improving the quality of care provided and on the common skin problems associated with AIDS. Dr Vlok’s lecture was followed by a visit to some patients. The purpose of these visits is to provide further hands-on training to the care-givers and to monitor the quality of care given. Once again Dr Vlok’s input was invaluable.
One of the patients, whom we randomly choose, was T. On our arrival, her father arrived on horseback. The hard way in which he spurred on the horse, reflected the concern of a desperate father, helplessly looking on as his child is fetched by the Untimely Visitor. The team left the family after offering a variety of care options, including physical and spiritual advice to both T and her family.
This once-beautiful young girl unfortunately died one hour after the DFL team left.
The sad reality is that the suffering does not stop at the death of the patient. Very often, the death affects parents and children in all areas of life, accelerating a downward spiral of poverty and despair. In this case, the local political leaders of the area refuses that T be buried because her father did not participate in a bloody faction fight 11 years ago.
Doctors for Life International very much appreciate the continuous support from the following people to help us assist this community to carry their burden:
Local business leaders like Mr & Mrs Dahl from the Harding SPAR,
American volunteers, Stephen Pasqualle and Michael Acresti from the Mount Zion School of World Missions,
DFL members like Dr Willem Vlok (above) and Dr Tseliso Nkuebe (executive member),and last but not the least, Mr Bill van der Weide from Canada for a donation of essential vitamins that could be distributed among children–in-need and terminal AIDS patients to build up their immune response, Rev Glasgow in the US for a donation to repair the roof of the DFL base in Deemount and to buy a fridge for the use of the volunteers who work in DFL’s Home Based Care and LifeChild Projects in the area.
'Doctors for Life International' represents more than 1400 medical doctors and specialists, three-quarters of who practice in South Africa. Since 1991 DFL has been actively promoting health care that is safe and efficient for all South Africans. DFL was founded as a South African organization in 1991 and has spread across the globe. DFL is involved in several community projects including orphan care, the care of terminal AIDS patients, malaria prevention and the care of abused women.