Health Care for broader Community

Objectives

· To provide comprehensive health care to the broader community.
· To educate people about HIV / AIDS.
· To provide support to those infected and affected by HIV / AIDS.

The Clinic provides the broader Bishopstowe Community with comprehensive health care. It is serviced once a month by Pietermaritzburg City Health on the second Tuesday of each month. At present the number of visitors does not warrant an increase in the number of service days. However visitor numbers are starting to increase slowly and the hope is to increase the number of 'service days' to once a week in the near future.

Services offered

The services offered include:
· Basic health care
· HIV / AIDS counselling and testing
· Family planning
· Well baby clinic and care of minor ailments

Outreach amongst Farm Labourers

At the beginning of this year (2005) Linda Knox, together with Rita Mkhize and a team of 3 volunteers, has taken on the responsibility of an 'outreach programme' on farms.

The aim is :

· To educate labourers (mostly cane cutters) about HIV / AIDS and related issues
· To encourage people to go for testing
· To encourage positive healthy living
· To encourage people to make use of the local clinic.

These outreaches on farms take place on Friday afternoons at 15:00 and last for about an hour.

Plans for the future

Kenosis hopes to expand the work of the clinic in the next year.
While doing outreach on farms the plan is to identify a couple of people who could be trained as Home Based Carers.
In this way more people would acquire the necessary skills for caring for a sick and dying person and the support base for People Living with AIDS in the Bishopstowe community would expand.
Also, when having identified and established a group of Home Based Carers these could assist Kenosis in identifying vulnerable children and children in need.
Kenosis could then assist these children and their families in caring and supporting them.