Door to door health care workers are heroes of our community in Snake Park
Nobulawo Sitshaluza
Valentia Masanabo aged 54years and lives in address number 4917 block 1. She is 1 of 25 health workers on the field and they report to 2 team leaders if they encounter any problem in the community.
She started volunteering for 4 years before she received any salary. She started by doing HIV testing and counselling (HCT) and they moved to work as health care workers.
She as a health care is assigned at our block in block 1 as such, she is one who gives my child Kamva Sitshaluza his vitamin and de-worming medication. She says that “she also dies referrals for either child who don’t have birth certificate and adults who have no identity document to social workers. The challenges she faces are when a patient defaults on their medication and also mostly parents who have children with disabilities are ashamed them. The children as such don’t get immunized, vaccinated or dewormed because they are hiding in their homes. She also says that “in those cases they refer them to their team leaders they then in turn go to those houses”.
She told me that “the passion of taking care of sick people comes from the fact as a young girl, she had to care of her grandmother who had sugar diabetes”. She had to make sure that she reminds her grandmother to take her medication, and she was the one who would go a fetch it at their local clinic pharmacy every month.
Our local clinic (Siphumlile) has seen more and more sick people coming in and asking for help in their health issues. Our community in Snake Park owes them a great deal of appreciation and thanks.