Refusing to be overwhelmed by the AIDS epidemic ravaging her community, Khosa initiated the Tateni Care Services, an organisation that has trained more than 150 people in home-based care, for terminally ills patients and those living with AIDS. She also lobbies for better treatment for orphans and her initiative is recognised by UNAIDS as one of the best pactice models for home-based care. The World Health Organisation is using Tateni as a case study.

“This is a wonderful moment for us,” said an excited Khosa, shortly after walking off with the prize (R2 000) in the health category.

“It hasn’€™t had time to sink in. I am very grateful, but I am very happy that Tateni is being recognised and is receiving publicity,” Khosa said, surrounded by her excited grandchildren.

When interviewed last year, Khosa lamented that she spent most of her weekends at graveyards, not really to honour those who have already moved on, but as she put it, “to bury the cream of Mamelodi”.

Started in 1995, Tateni’€™s home-based care activities are aimed mainly at caring for the many people dying of AIDS-related illnesses in Mamelodi on a daily basis.

Despite never being able to find sufficient funding, Khosa and her group of fellow retired nurses and volunteers were managing to care for over 400 patients at one time.

In fact, they were so successful that the Gauteng Health Department was looking to Tateni to provide the answers on caring for the thousands of terminal AIDS patients.

“In our case it is not really home care for the AIDS patient only. We end up caring for the whole family – applying for social grants, poverty alleviation, finding a place for the children who are orphaned when their parents die and caring for the elderly who are desperately trying to care for their young children ravaged by AIDS,” she said.

“What can we do? People arrive here. They have lost their jobs because of AIDS. They tell us they are hungry and they don’€™t have a place to sleep.”

It all started in 1994 when Khosa, who was working for the Pretoria City Council, realised the services needed to become more home- and community-based.

“People were being sent home from the hospital after being told nothing could be done for them.

“We did an informal survey and found that there were at least 427 people who were chronically ill and at home in Mamelodi at the time. They were being left at home while the rest of the family worked or they were being locked in.”

“We (Khosa and a group of retired nurses) knew we had the skills and we decided to do it. In retrospect I realise it was an emotional response to the problem, but something needed to be done.”

Khosa started training young volunteers on how to care for patients. Some volunteers included young girls Khosa had found hanging around outside escort agencies.

Now Khosa also refers to her volunteer programme as poverty relief because many youngsters are unemployed and need the little bit of money Khosa sometimes manages to pay them or the cup of tea and peanut butter sandwich that she can offer.

Some of the youngsters have gone back to school to redo matric others have become nurses and social workers.

But AIDS has not passed this group by. Khosa had lost five volunteers to AIDS at the time of the interview.

“They don’€™t tell you they are HIV positive when they arrive. But it doesn’€™t take long to pick up the signs.

At the time Tateni was caring for 407 patients. “The unfortunate part of this disease is that the young ones don’€™t live long. Many of them die quickly due to depression, stress or hunger” she said.

People with HIV and their families come to Tateni in a number of ways. Many arrive in search of services having heard about Tateni from others. Formal referrals are also received from local clinics, general practitioners and the Pretoria Academic Hospital.

Tateni’€™s activities aim to compliment existing health care services rather than duplicating or competing with them.

The family and neighbours become the primary caregivers with Tateni volunteers training them how to wash the patient, relieve pain or dress wounds.

They also assist with the funeral arrangements once the patient has died.

Financial support for Tateni comes entirely from local donors and some from the provincial government, although this sponsorship is not guaranteed.

There is currently no national or international funding.

Donors sponsor the medicines and nursing materials dispensed by Tateni. “There are many times when we use old sheets to bandage bedsores,” Khosa said.

HIV/AIDS prevention, education and surveillance are also important parts of the Tateni work.

Before going home for a well-deserved rest at the end of the day, Khosa stops at a small house. She walks around to a room at the back where she visits one of her favorite patients.

Khosa bends over Tshepo ‘€“ “How are you today? You seem to be doing well,” she says, smiling and squeezing his arm.

Too weak to pull himself up, Tsepho (29) gives her the thumbs-up sign.

His brother Andries hovers in the background as Khosa dresses and cleans the painful ulcers on Tshepo’€™s genitals.

“He’€™s a fighter,” Khosa says, looking at Tshepo, her eyes filled with compassion. “When we started caring for him he was a living corpse.”

A former petrol pump attendant Tshepo was told five years ago that he was HIV positive. His wife has since deserted him, but he manages to care for his six year-old twin daughters, in a tiny room at the back of a house.

“What can we do? We have to keep going. Where is this all going to end? Who knows?” Khosa said.

Anyone wishing to contact Tateni can do so on 012-805-7638 or 082-819-5195.