Getting to Know the Blue Roof Clinic

I have noticed that the people I work with at the Blue Roof take enormous pride in their work, which is an amazing quality, and something I am blessed to be in the midst of. Therefore, I have to be cognizant of how I approach people with regards to improvements to our clinic’s programs. “This is where we are, this is where we want to be, how do we get there?” I am working very hard to keep it clear to my colleagues that I’m just here to help! Together, we can get this clinic to the next level of care that we want to provide to the community here.

Earlier in the week, I met with Randall, the assistant pharmacist, who also volunteers as the advisor for the Wentworth Youth Revolution – the Youth Development Program we have established here at the Blue Roof. According to Randall, the program currently has about 22 active members. Life skills and education surrounding HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness have been the main focus of the program thus far, but we are looking to enhance the program’s role to support the overall activities of the Blue Roof. There is a lot of potential for this youth program to thrive, and it can actually sustain itself with consistent youth action. The restructured program will empower them to be involved with the clinic on a daily basis if they wish, and will give them the skills and resources to fundraise for the clinic and raise greater awareness about the clinic’s presence in the community. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of this initiative in the coming months!

Yesterday, I met with Thuli, Cynthia and Kathy, our brilliant VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) counselors to discuss the VCT program and the psychosocial support program that they manage. For our clients who test negative, they counsel them on safe sex practices, and encourage them to return every three months to be re-tested. For our clients who test positive, drug adherence classes are offered three times a week, in English and Zulu. One of the challenges we have encountered is that many of our patients have difficulty getting to the clinic because they cannot afford bus fare, and the adherence classes are later in the day when they cannot get a ride from friends en route to work. Often then, the patients who do attend adherence classes are there only because they had an appointment with the clinic earlier in the day, but they always express how happy they are to be here. I am going to work with our counselors to develop empowerment programs that can be offered in the early mornings, so patients can come early to learn a skill and then stay for their adherence classes. For example, our patients could eat breakfast at our to-be-created patient “café,” and then participate in a morning empowerment program (computer tutorials, physical fitness classes, textile training, and so forth), before their adherence class. We also intend to arrange VCT drives twice a month with various community organizations during the next three months.

Another challenge the clinic currently faces is the need to educate the families of our patients, especially those in more rural areas. The stigma associated with HIV continues to be an obstacle to our AIDS relief efforts. Many of our patients have told our counselors how they lost the support of their families once they found out they were HIV positive. Can you imagine? One woman recently came in for her doctor’s appointment, starving, because her sisters would not let her cook food from the same pots and pans they used, and she had not eaten in days. I am going to work with our VCT counselors to explore ways we can extend our psychosocial support services to our patient families, to help break the stigma that results in such physical and emotional abuse.

We had a beautiful day at the clinic today, though. Our support group meets every Thursday here at the Blue Roof, and today they began planting in our community garden. You could see everyone having such a wonderful time, planting all the different seeds. They planted all sorts of vegetables, which, once grown, will be used to prepare nutritious meals for our patients on a daily basis. At one point, our patients broke out into song, which I was privileged to witness and catch on tape.

I apologize for how shaky it is – I hope you can still gather from the footage the strength that was felt by all of us in that moment. It is so inspiring to see how simple a task can empower people. I am going to work with our amazing VCT team to develop more activities like the community garden for our patients to participate in, so moments like these can grace the clinic all the more often, and so our patients will have items like the garden that they can look at and say with pride, “I was a part of that.”

Preparing the seeds

Preparing the soil

Cynthia, one of our VCT counselors

What a beautiful team effort!

Moussa, our groundskeeper

This afternoon, I met with our Home Based Care workers to talk to them about the state of the program and what they would like to see happen. We have been providing home based care to people in the immediate community, but realize that a greater need lies in the areas just beyond Wentworth, Durban. We purchased a vehicle to ease access to these communities, and as soon as it is ready, which will be within the next week or so, we will begin running the home based care program at full speed, visiting patients every day during the week and as needed in emergencies. Our caregivers are thrilled to be positioned to bring our services to those in desperate need in the wider community!

After work today, Rhona and I passed a house near my apartment that had caught fire. The fire department was already at the scene and had contained most of the flames, but it was still a horror to behold, and made me think of what it means to have nothing. Every day we work with patients who visit our clinic because they have nothing, no change of clothes, no food, no family support system, nothing beyond the treatment and care they receive at our clinic. And the family that once lived in that burning house, their possessions have been reduced to nothing. So yes, my stove may not be hooked up yet, I may have no access to Internet or phone in my flat, I may have left my glasses in New York City, but I still have so much more than I could ever possibly humanly need.

And with that in mind, I have been thinking a lot about the people right outside our clinic’s gates. I wish there was more we could do for them. There is a tavern situated next door, and we are desperately trying to remove the part that they so boldly attached to our building. And every time you walk outside our gate, there are people wandering drunk all around, and begging for money. It’s difficult for me because I spend my days helping our clinic work more efficiently to help more people, but there is no immediate help we can give to these people right outside our gates. It is in situations like these that I recall the most valuable lesson I’ve learned from my own sister in recovery: it’s not up to me. When they are ready to be helped, they will seek it out. The same goes for the people in this community living with HIV. Keep a Child Alive can create all the services and have all the resources available at the Blue Roof, but people have to be ready to help themselves. Only then will our work begin to make a real difference in their lives.