International Children'€™s Day today (June 1) has led to renewed calls for children to receive lifesaving social grants. But many still receive nothing. Elvis Lerale and Theresa Chabalala are both orphans and live in Limpopo. Health-e first visited them three years ago and returned recently to Maupye and Radoo villages to find that one of them has secured a social grant, while the other still lives in abject poverty.
Beautiful Gate Lesotho, a non-profit ministry situated in an industrial area some 20 minutes south of the capital Maseru, is home to 22 infants. Some are abandoned and others orphaned, mostly because of AIDS. Health-e visited the centre.
Mokgahlo wa Beautiful Gate naheng ya Lesotho ke lekala la tshebelletso ya Beautiful Gate Ministries eo dikantoro tsa yona di leng Afrika Borwa. Ho tloha toropong e kgolo ya Maseru ho ka nka metsotso e 20 pele o fihla teng. Ke lehae la masea a lahluweng ke batswadi. Bongata ba bona ke dikgutsana tseo batswadi ba bolauweng ke lefu la Phamkokathe. Kaofela ba 22 ka palo. Re ile ra etela lehae lena la bana ho ya bona hore na ebe ba phela jwang.
One person can make a difference. Ask those who work with or who are treated by the jazz-loving maverick Dr Zola Ntshona, an obstetrician at the Polokwane hospital.
Mpumalanga province'€™s health department, once viewed as corrupt and inept, is experiencing a healthy revival.
Hospitalized children need the support of their families in order to cope with their sickness. Dikeledi Mtsho (not her real name) is a single parent of a one-year old terminally ill boy. She speaks about the value of spending time with her child in hospital.
Two million out of 9,4 million KwaZulu-Natal residents who live mostly in rural areas and informal settlements still don't have adequate care in South Africa's most populous province.
Each year the Red Cross Children'€™s Hospital in Cape Town treats about 170 000 children aged from 0 to 12 years. Many come from Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and elsewhere in Africa and many of them are suffering from terminal illnesses. But how do health workers cope with the trauma of losing the young patients who have become part of their lives?
Families are reducing their food intake as a first strategy to cope with the increased financial burden of caring for a sick or dying HIV positive family member.
Despite its small population of around 2.2 million, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho is concerned that its HIV transmission rate is increasing. The official prevalence rate is 31%. Only a handful, about 5% of the infected, pay for treatment provided by the private health sector. But a grant donation has enabled Lesotho to begin ushering in a small-scale treatment initiative.
Migration is taking its toll on health services in Gauteng, South Africa'€™s economic powerhouse.
Ten years later, health services in the flat, often bleak, central province of Free State are stable and the quality of care is improving.
The Limpopo province is one of five provinces that the government says will soon be ready to join the Western Cape and Gauteng in providing AIDS treatment in the public health sector. In this feature Health-e visits Tintswalo Hospital, Limpopo'€™s second largest hospital in rural Acornhoek, and met Dr Paul Pronyk, an American who has been working at the hospital for the last six years as part of Wits University'€™s Rural AIDS and Development Action Research project.
Profense ya Limpopo ke e nngwe ya tse hlano tseo mmuso o reng di tla fana ka meriana ya Phamokathe haufinyana. Hona ka mora hore profense ya Gauteng e qale ho fumantsha bakudi meriana ena ka la 1 Mmesa. Tlalehong ena Khopotso Bodibe o etela sepetlele sa Tintswalo, se seng sa dipetlele tse kgolo profenseng ya Limpopo, se leng motseng wa mahaeng Acornhoek. Moo teng o ile a teana le ngaka Paul Pronyk eo a e nang le dilemo tse tsheletseng a sebetsa sepetleng seo ka tlase ho morero wa Rural AIDS and Development Action Research ya yunibesithi ya Wits.
One of the best-resourced provinces in the country, the Western Cape'€™s health services function well.
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