‘Morning Virginia! How are you? How’s the Kaletra? Okay?’ the diminutive woman hollers across the clinic passage.
Colleen Herman spins on her heels, the huge bunch of keys clanging as she slots the key into the door. Herman is not your average ‘clinic worker’. A study co-ordinator for CIPRA-SA, Herman oversees the day-to-day running of a busy ARV research clinic in Masiphumelele, an informal settlement nestled between Fish Hoek and Kommetjie.
CIPRA-SA is the ‘Comprehensive International Program of Research on AIDS’, a programme sponsored by a group of American institutes with a specific focus on HIV/AIDS and TB. The Masiphumelele (Masi) project is one of the research sites managed by the University of Cape Town’s Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation.
Nomzamo, a cramped primary healthcare clinic situated on Masiphumelele’s main road is run by the City of Cape Town and the province with the university group conducting research around ARV treatment, tuberculosis genotyping, adolescents and vaccines. Currently around 500 patients are receiving treatment in the tiny nurse and doctor driven clinic.
Herman races up and down the corridors like a Duracell bunny.
‘I make sure everything runs smoothly. I manage the ARV team in Masi,’ she babbles, interrupted only by the greetings from colleagues and patients in the corridor.
Starting her career as a paediatric nurse at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, Herman says she always felt more drawn to the research side.
In the space of one minute, Herman click clacks on her heeled sandals up the 16 stairs to her office, hugs a colleague on the way, pats a mother changing her baby’s nappy on the back and reboots a computer.
‘Ja, you get to know the patients by name and number,’ Herman smiles.
Today she is dressed in formal navy slacks and a white blouse for her nursing lecturer’s visit. ‘Usually I would be in jeans and tekkies,’ she giggles.
‘How are you?’ Herman asks a young woman waiting on a wooden bench in the passage.
‘I am very well,’ the woman replies a broad smile on her face. She jokingly asks Herman whether she will be receiving a gift for doing so well on her ARVs.
‘Your present is you life,’ Herman shoots back without missing a beat. ‘Here we all condomise, we all disclose’¦’ she preaches walking down the passage.
‘You know this is more than a job for me, it’s like a ministry. I am always happy to come to work because I know we are impacting on people’s lives in a very real way.’
A single mother of two young sons, Herman is known to jump in when there are staff shortages and take bloods when the clinic is busy or to rush a patient to False Bay Hospital in her car if they are ill.
Today Herman is handing out secondhand clothing she collected at her church to patients who a few days earlier lost all their belongings in a fire.
‘Just there’¦can you see, a whole lot of shacks burnt down,’ she points from her first floor office.
Herman pauses for a minute when asked what makes her tick: ‘Impacting on people’s lives through my abilities and hard work.’
CIPRA investigator Dr Jennifer Pitt, describes Herman as ‘an awesome personality and the driving force behind the ARV clinic at Masiphumelele’.
‘Although her job is strictly that of a research study co-ordinator (largely focusing on the administration of the research study that we are currently running), Colleen functions well beyond the boundaries of her position,’ says Pitt.
She credits Herman as the source of all energy and motivation at ‘Masi’.
‘Always ready with a big hug, happy smile and cheerful outlook on life – no problem (whether operational or sticky staff stuff) is too big for Colleen to overcome.
She has been the uniting force behind our team and is the reason why our team works so well,’ says Pitt.
According to Pitt, Herman runs an efficient clinic – allowing patients to receive an exceptional standard of care.
‘But she does so with a very personal touch – she knows the names and study numbers of all of our 500 plus patients on ARVs,’ adds Pitt.
‘Colleen has a wonderful way of seeing the good in everyone – even the most difficult of our patients – and is always ready with an encouraging word and another big hug,’ Pitt smiles.
‘To be honest, I do not know how we would function at Masi without her as she is central to our whole programme,’ adds Pitt.
