HIV & AIDS

AngloGold Ashanti has supported the Carletonville Home and Community-Based Care (CHCBC) since 2001. Over the years, CHCBC has received R727,000 in total donations from the company through the AngloGold Ashanti Fund.

CHCBC serves as one of the organisations’ HIV & AIDS support programmes, along with prevention and treatment. In 2008 CHCBC celebrated its 10 years of existence providing home-based care to HIV & AIDS patients, particularly people living with HIV & AIDS in Khutsong, just outside Carletonville.

“The organisation has developed over the years with the introduction of new programmes and an increase in number of patients,” says Buti Kulwane, HIV & AIDS Workplace Manager and Chairperson of the Board of Governors at CHCBC.

One of the significant programmes is the roll out of Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) by the government for people infected with HIV, which has had a positive impact on the health of patients in the CHCBC Palliative Care Programme. The monthly death rate was reduced from an average of eight in 2004 to four in 2006. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the average monthly death rate in 2007 was only two. The CD4 counts of some of the patients improved significantly and they have been able to seek employment in the labour market. Other patients are actively involved in the skills development projects of the CHCBC where they produce goods that can be sold.

The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) came on board and introduced the CHCBC to the new approach of psycho-social support for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) and their guardians. The partnership between the NMCF and the CHCBC began in 2006 and the new approach has had a positive impact on the emotional wellbeing of both the children and the guardians. It also became clear at the CHCBC strategy review workshop held in October 2006 that there was a great need for the psycho-social support of both the orphaned children and their care mothers. The Hope Worldwide and Regional Psycho-social Support Initiative (RPSI, a capacity building organisation) training on psycho-social support has already started for the care workers of CHCBC. They plan to conduct training for other groups including the Sakhi-Sizwe Community Child Care Forum, Support Groups of People Living with HIV & AIDS (PLWHAs) and other community groups in Khutsong and Merafong City.

In 2006 CHCBC celebrated a 100% pass rate for its Grade 12 students. The Heartbeat Centre has assisted with financing most of these learners’ tertiary education. Due to struggles CHCBC experiences with financing the student’s tertiary fees, the board is in the process of establishing an education trust to raise funds for orphaned children who have passed Grade 12. An annual fund-raising dinner will be held during the month of February each year starting from 2009.

The CHCBC to date cares for an estimated 530 orphaned and vulnerable children and 450 people living with HIV & AIDS, and an average of 70 terminally ill patients each month. Slightly above 50% of the orphaned beneficiaries receive nutritional and financial support in addition to psycho-social support. The CHCBC stops provision of nutritional and material support to these children who successfully apply for foster care grants from the state’s Department of Social Development.

These patients and orphaned children are catered for through the following programmes:

• Support groups programme: for people living with HIV & AIDS.
• Palliative care programme: patients are assisted with daily activities like bathing, changing linen, eating and cleaning their homes. Family support and education are also undertaken, so as to ensure continuity of care in the absence of the care-giver.
• Orphan care programme: in which child-headed and grandparent-headed households are catered for. 33 orphaned beneficiaries are themselves HIV-infected.
• Poverty alleviation programme: after-school meals are prepared by care workers every day, distribution of food parcels to grandparent-headed and child-headed families on a monthly basis and emergency food parcels for new admissions.

CHCBC is strengthening each year in terms of skill and capacity, but their challenges grow each year as well. After several burglaries at their Khutsong offices, CHCBC was compelled to move its headquarters to the town of Carletonville in order to safeguard valuable equipment. The need for food supply for the entire orphan and vulnerable children community far exceeds CHCBC’s supply, and they are not always able to meet the nutritional needs of HIV & AIDS patients. The food supply initiative for orphan care can only remain sustainable with external financial aid.

“We are actively raising funds and asking for donations from the government and private sector in order to provide for the increasing nutritional needs of the orphaned children and destitute families. Our resources are always limited because food prices are consistently rising and our donors do not always provide the amounts that we request from them. We have a very limited budget,” says Kulwane.

Also see case study: The delivery of ART to employees (2003 Report to Society).