Who we are

Since 2001 Seke Rural Home Based Care has been implementing home based care and palliative careinterventions to improve the quality of life for people affected and infected by HIV. SRHBC relies heavily on volunteer caregivers who are the backbone of the organisation. There are a total of 1023 caregivers and all of them have been trained in Home Based Care but only 145 have been trained in palliative care due to limited resources. The caregivers assist in identification, referral and monitoring of HIV positive clients through adherence education and monitoring. They are also responsible for coordinating support groups at community level.

The organisation is also involved in OVC care through addressing education, Health and social protection needs of children. The Education component comprises of direct school fees payment and payment of fees through proceeds from School Development Committee income generating activitieswhich were funded by SRHBC. The Health interventions include School Health Assessments, Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health for in school youths and assistance for HIV positive children using the Integrated Management of Peadiatric HIV AIDS Care and Treatment (IMPACT) model. The IMPACT model was piloted in Seke District by Seke Rural HBC and was very successful. The model has been documented and handed over to the Ministry of Health at national level which is now cascading the model to other District of the country. Social protection interventions include psychosocial support groups, support for child protection committees and counselling for children and their families. The organisation mainstreams livelihoods and gender in all its programming.

Sunday, 7 September 2014

Story of most significant change

Story of Most Significant Change 
Good Nutrition is a necessity in the life of people living positively. Maideyi a 40 year old widow with 3 children had the challenge of losing weight and constantly being affected by various opportunistic infections including diarrhea. With assistance from Seke Rural HBC Maideyi  got tested for HIV and was found positive.  She was commenced on ARVs (Stalanev) in 2007 at Marondera O. I. Clinic.  In late 2007 Maideyi started working as a house helper in Seke where she was encouraged to join one of the psychosocial support groups. In the support groups she got encouragement and information on adherence which helped her to improve her physical, mental, spiritual and social condition.
In 2008 her social position and physical condition so improved that Maideyi remarried.  Even though she had 3 children of her own, her husband had none since he was still a bachelor then and HIV negative.  He is still HIV negative now.  They decided to have a child for "sunga hukama" so as to strengthen the marriage. 

Seke Rural Home Based Care capacitated the couple with  information on Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) and referred them to Kunaka hospital for the programme which she adhered to quite well.  In 2008 the couple was blessed with a baby girl (Nyasha) who they exclusively breast fed for 4 months then weaned her off to solids. The baby had a DNA PCR test done 3 months after cessation of breast milk and was found to be HIV negative. The baby was tested again at 18months and she tested negative. Baby Nyasha is still negative and very healthy.

All this while Maideyi continued to enjoy her newly found happiness; loving husband, bouncing baby, good physical looks and being a successful PMTCT champion in her support group.  

Maideyi had an unexpected pregnancy in 2011.  With  the support from SRHBC staff, she went through the PMTCT process again.  She delivered twin boys. She was devastated because she did not expect twins.  HIV positive mothers had only two choices of feeding their babies i.e. 1. Exclusive breastfeeding and 2. Solids only - meaning any other foods except the mother's milk.  She chose to  breast feed the twins for 6 months exclusively because she could not afford any other means to feed them given her economic situation at that time.  Things had turned bad for Maideyi because she had little food to support her to produce enough milk for the twins and at the same time sustain her health.  She began to lose weight drastically and lost interest in almost everything she used to enjoy.

Seke Rural Home Based Care and  Tariro Support Group members  worked tirelessly to encourage her to rejuvenate her interest and participate in the communal garden activities.   She was supported on her 20 by 20 meter plot where she grew different types of vegetables.  Her family enjoyed the nutritious food and also sold the surplus   

The twins had a DNA PCR test 3 months after cessation of breast milk and they were also found to be HIV negative.  They are now one year old and still HIV negative and healthy. 
  
Right now Maideyi and her husband are a healthy couple with three vibrant children. She continues to take her ARVs and practices positive living.  Maideyi is still a staunch member of Tariro Support Group Communal Garden.

Maideyi credits her successful PMTCT initiative to the support group meetings that they hold every week in the communal garden.  The   support group meetings often have teaching sessions from palliative care nurses and social workers .The social workers also carryout home visits to individuals where counseling and psychosocial support is offered. Since Maideyi  is a  beneficiary and has a plot in the Tariro Support group communal garden, she has benefited a  lot from the programme as she has a variety of nutritional vegetables from the garden. Weaning off her babies was not a challenge as she got supplements from the garden that were healthy and of nutritional value to her children. Maideyi also affords doctors review and bus fare to Chitungwiza O. I. Clinic to collect her ARVs from the surplus she gets from sales of her garden produce.  

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