Hospice

Nicole and I had an eye-opening experience today. We met up with Kokstad's branch of Hospice, which gave us a township tour. We spent the day in Kokstad's poverty-stricken neighborhoods - "the locations" as the government calls them. The government provides housing for the people in these neighborhoods (see the picture below). Hospice brings medical treatment to the sick people living in these neighborhoods.

1 in 3 people in South Africa has HIV or AIDS. The majority of the people we saw today had HIV or AIDS (including the children). Because of their compromised immune systems, these people tend to get sick very easily. TB is a huge problem here, especially considering the small houses they share. Once one family member contracts TB, the rest of the family is likely to develop TB. Those with TB receive daily injections of medicine. Hospice also makes sure that patients on ARVs (for HIV/AIDS) have been taking their medicine twice a day, every day. If they miss even one dose, the virus is likely to grow stronger within their system.

We saw several examples of the good that Hospice is doing in the community. Several people that we ran into, who are fine now, would have been dead a few months ago if not for Hospice's medical treatment. It was very heart-wrenching to see the devastation caused by AIDS, though. So many children have been orphaned by this disease, left to be cared for by grandparents or aunts. It was even harder to see children with HIV or AIDS. It's so hard to look at them and know that they will never lead a normal life: they will always be smaller than other children and underdeveloped, and they won't live nearly as long. It's so easy to feel completely helpless - after all, there is nothing that you can do to cure them of AIDS. But so many of them have smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts. I think they understand better than any of us that this world is not our home.

The two ladies in the back are Hospice caregivers. They live in these neighborhoods, and their job is to figure out who is sick so that the nurses can come and give them treatment. The little girl in this picture was abandoned by her mother. She almost died when she was a little girl, but Hospice brought her to the hospital and nursed her back to health. She is 3 years old now and is living with her grandparents.

This is a school for children with disabilities. The schools in South Africa don't have special education like they do in America, so the woman on the left decided to use her home to educate these kids.

The woman in this picture is the Hospice nurse that showed us around.

Each of these little shacks is a home built by the government. The shacks are literally no bigger than my living room back home, but they house anywhere from a single couple to a dozen family members. Most have electricity, but they do not have running water or indoor plumbing.