Home based care field activity

 

ON 20^TH February HBC volunteers visited five clients who are bed ridden and assisted them in medication and food for their wellbeing. Homebased care program has been supporting HIV positive clients especially those who are bed ridden by giving them palliative care. The program has been active for about 20yrs now and has made great impact in fight against HIV/AIDs. Bedridden cases have continued to reduce with some clients passing away and others regaining strength. There is still a percentage remaining who are bedridden due to lack of proper diet, therefor they lose immunity and are affected by related diseases, others lose hope in life and decide to abandon the drugs, some have cultural believes which makes them not to go for medical treatment and some avoid going for HIV testing. It takes effort and courage for a volunteer to convince a person who has lost hope in life to get  back to medication. These are some of the cases we have attended to this month.

Ken (not his real name) was born in 1982 and he has two brothers. His father passed away and now he is living with his mother who takes care of him. His brothers rely on casual labor and they are married, therefore they don’t get enough money to support him.

Before the year 2020 ken used to be a strong man who had married one wife and they had been blessed with two children, a boy and a girl who are now teenagers. He used to do welding job. A time came when he was in good health and he thought he can survive without taking ARVs. That was the moment his body became weak and unfortunately, he got paralysis on the lower part of the body and was no longer able to provide food for the family. His wife could not endure, so she decided to abandon the family and she left. At the moment it is the mother who takes care of the grandchildren and ken. The mother is old and she relies on the little farm produce she gets and help from well-wishers.

Our homebased care volunteers are the ones who take always take drags to him and also report to us incase his health deteriorates. Most of the time ken is always alone in the house and he relies on his radio to entertain him and his bible give him hope. Whenever we visit him he always welcomes us with a smile. He tells us that he is hopeful that one day he will regain his health and be able to care for the family.