| 2/07/2010 AFSA partner organisation Zimisele Women’s Health Club given Toyota Hilux for community work |
AFSA partner organisation Zimisele Women’s Health Club given Toyota Hilux for community work
AFSA is delighted to congratulate Zimisele Women’s Health Club, a community-based organisation situated in the Durban township of Umlazi, on being rewarded with the donation of a Toyota Hilux Double Cab and Office equipment from the Japanese Embassy.
Zimisele was established in 1987 by a group of retired nurses to help patients with AIDS who were being turned away from hospitals and medical facilities due to overcrowding. Before partnering with the AIDS Foundation, the women of Zimisele were providing home-based care and home visits from their own personal funds. Since they have received funding from AFSA they have been able to extend their reach in the community of Umlazi and now offer home-based care for people with HIV and AIDS, child and youth care services, auxiliary social work and soup kitchens at two schools. In 2010 AFSA will be providing Zimisele with R507 568, or approximately USD 65 500.
The home-based care workers, also known as community health workers, visit families in the community and assist them in caring for the ill members of their family. The majority of the families that the Zimisele home-based care workers deal with are people living with HIV and AIDS, but they also assist families affected by other illnesses such as tuberculosis. Identifying the need for care of the ever-increasing numbers of AIDS orphans, Zimisele began to offer child and youth care services to empower and support the AIDS orphans living in Umlazi, by scheduling activities for the children, helping them with homework, and even arranging a Christmas party.
Zimisele’s auxiliary social workers assist families to acquire identity documents so that they can apply for the government’s child support grant (250 South African Rand a month, or approximately USD 32) and support grandmothers raising children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Zimisele also runs soup kitchens in two primary schools as well as provides meals for over 100 vulnerable orphaned children who live in child-headed households and experience difficulty getting enough food.
AFSA is proud to support an organisation doing such good work and is delighted that this has been recognised and rewarded by Mitsubishi. Well done, Zimisele! |
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