Lisa Marie mentioned that we could send you letters to put on the blog spot. Here is an account of what we did last week if you were interested in posting it on the blog:We actually got to tour some of the hospitals, which was great. On Monday, we went to a facility called Themba Care. This hospital takes care of infants who are HIV positive. The provide them with ARV medications (medications used to fight against aids), nutrition, and love and care.

The nurse that showed us around told us that before 2002, they did not have the ARV medications, so the children would come to their facility so they could care for them as they died. In 2002, the government got funding (alot of it is from the US) to provide the ARVs for children and families who could not afford the medication and care on their own because they are too poor.

The nurse told us that they have to think of a lot of socioeconomic factors while giving care like: Can the mother actually afford to get transportation to the facility to bring her baby there?, since there is such a stigma on being HIV+ they have to keep the information very confidential so that no one knows that the baby and mom have HIV (when they talk to families and go out to the community to give care they have to be very discrete), and will the child actually have enough food to nourish them and help them to stay well? Its a really hard concept, because at home you don’t have to be responsible for all of these apects constantley as a nurse.

We also went to a school that is a private school started by a lady named Cristel De Haan. This school named Cristel House provides free education (its a private school)to children who couldn’t afford education otherwise. This school also worries about these children’s economic concerns (lunch money and school uniforms) and health concerns and provides for these things(which I thought was amazing). We visited the school nurse and she told us what she does.

 

On Tuesday, we went to a maternity clinic/jospital called Bishop Lavis Maturnity ward. It is very modest and not as sophisticated as hospitals in the US, but I feel that they are just as good. The nurses are efficient and learn how to make due with what they have. They practice nursing skills using the basics, so in some ways it seems as if they have more skills because they don’t depend on technology, they practice skills using theold methods.

We also toured the pediatrics part of the ward. TB
(tuberculosis which is a lung infection that you get simply by breathing in the air around someone who has TB)is one of the biggest concerns as well as HIV. All of the windows in the hospital were open to prevent the transmission of TB since it is so prevalent here.

 On Wednesday, we went to the Red Cross War Memorial pediatric hospital (which is the hospital we actually live right behind, which is great!) We went to the burn unit at the facility. As soon as I walked on to the unit, I was shocked to see infants and toddlers so injured. Their little faces were burned and their little bodies, all I could say  was oh my gosh. A great doctor gave us a history about the facility and explained to us the kind of care they give here.