This gift helps out on the home front by funding visiting carers. It pays for the training, equipment, and salaries of hardworking helpers who provide home-based care, emotional support and practical help for people living with HIV and AIDs.
South Africa has been particularly badly affected by HIV and AIDS. In South Africa people living with HIV and AIDS often face stigma and discrimination.
Oxfam has trained 25 home-based carers in Johannesburg how to provide care and support to people living with HIV and AIDS, including how to deal with stigma and discrimination.
“We visit the families regularly to offer assistance. Our help comes in many different forms. We offer the family counselling on our visits. This counselling helps them understand the disease and how to treat their loved ones at home. We also stress how vital it is that nobody neglects good nutrition”. Selimina Ditabe, home-based carer, Pheko Ka Kopanelo
Tshepiso Mokoena, was raped at 15 and contracted HIV and became pregnant as a result. A home-based carer advised her to visit a clinic and educated her on how to prevent passing the virus on to her baby. She has since given birth to a healthy HIV negative baby boy. Tshepiso is now working as a counsellor and home-based carer. “I am now on ARV treatment and I’ve got my life back.”