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Zimbabwe: volunteers provide vital assistance to families coping with HIV/AIDS
Jean-Luc Martinag, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
May 05, 2006

http://www.ifrc.org/docs/news/06/06050501/

Joyce Chipfupi is a busy young mother of four living in Marondera, a small town located 75 kilometres east of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. Joyce has been a Red Cross volunteer since 1993 and helps provide hundreds of families affected by HIV/AIDS with valuable medical and nutritional advice, as well as emotional support. Joyce also takes care of the disease’s youngest victims – children infected with HIV and those orphaned by AIDS.

It is estimated that 25 per cent of the adult population in Southern Africa is infected with HIV, while more than four million children in the region have lost one or both parents due to AIDS. This number is expected to double by 2010.

Ten years ago, Joyce was among the first Zimbabwe Red Cross volunteers to start home-based care programmes for people living with HIV. At first, she was taking care of 36 adults and 33 children orphaned by AIDS.

"It was difficult at the beginning," she remembers. "We had very little knowledge and we could see so many people dying."

Over the past decade, Joyce has been able to develop her skills and has succeeded in training 39 new volunteers to carry out home-based healthcare, thanks to the support of the Zimbabwe Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies. Together, these volunteers are helping a growing number of people in Zimbabwe. Today, her team takes care of over 830 adults and more than 1,000 orphans and vulnerable children.

The volunteers, who visit people infected with HIV in their neighbourhoods and communities, offer advice on health, hygiene and medication, while making sure that people have enough food to eat. Family counselling sessions focussing on anti-stigma and acceptance are also provided.

"Now we are also offering psychological support as well as nutritional guidance," says Joyce, who adds that special attention is being paid to children. "We meet them every Friday after school," she says. "We give them psychological support but we also provide them with hygiene kits, take them to hospital if necessary and try to have them put on a free treatment list if they don’t have the money to buy medicines," she adds. Activities also include the provision of school fees, uniforms and clothing.

In addition, Red Cross volunteers in the Marondera area are in contact with the national health system via a monthly communication meeting, involving local doctors, nurses and social welfare workers. Joyce is proud to show how her work is making a difference. She smiles when she tells the story of nine-year-old Lace, the youngest girl in a child-headed family with 5 brothers and sisters orphaned by AIDS.

Lace was diagnosed with HIV last year. Her health deteriorated quickly so Joyce and her team took care of the Lace, monitored her condition, sent her to hospital and facilitated free treatment. She was started on antiretroviral drugs and a few weeks later, Lace was able to go home. Her health has improved greatly since then but the volunteers continue to visit her on a regular basis.

When asked what has motivated her to donate so much of her time to volunteering, especially when she’s already busy taking care of her own four children, Joyce quietly replies that she is "dedicated to the International Federation’s Principle of Humanity", which underscores the need to act in order to prevent and alleviate human suffering.

"I can see how our work makes a difference," says Joyce. "I am only doing my duty as a human being."
In April 2006, Joyce was invited to Johannesburg, South Africa, for a regional symposium on home-based care programmes organised by the International Federation, where she received a special award for her accomplishments.

She is hoping that the new five-year plan on HIV for Southern Africa, which was recently launched by the International Federation, will provide her with even more training and resources in order to face the challenges that lie ahead.

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