
Halfway between help and home
When the voices stop and their thoughts become their own again, people with schizophrenia may be ready to leave psychiatric facilities - but the next step may be anyone’s guess.

When the voices stop and their thoughts become their own again, people with schizophrenia may be ready to leave psychiatric facilities - but the next step may be anyone’s guess.

It began with two children and developed into a passion. Now, Annah Ndlovu is hoping to translate her passion for children into real change in her community of Soshanguve outside Pretoria.

Avelile was born with HIV. Now, the teenager from rural Eastern Cape never misses a dose of her antiretrovirals (ARVs) – and has become an example to her community.

Amid ongoing power cuts, many communities are dealing with intermittent water supplies and relying on water trucks for portable water as municipalities struggle to maintain their water systems.

Without running water, residents of one rural Mpumalanga community say they are left to beg for water at the gates of a local school where they say security guards often turn them away empty handed.

At least two villages in Limpopo’s Mutale Local Municipality depend on municipal water trucks to survive but now villagers are claiming the trucks are delivering dirty water.

Local Ward 3 Councillor Susan Nthangeni says R300 million has been allocated to fix local municipal pipes and boreholes following deadly service delivery protests in April.

With the construction of a promised dam delayed, residents of Kestell, Free State say that the lack of water risks their lives and their livelihoods.

Residents of Silahliwe informal settlement outside Bethlehem share one working toilet for about every 900 people. According to local officials, securing access to water and sanitation may mean that about a third of the settlement’s residents will have to move.

When emergencies happen, rural communities outside Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape say there is no one to call – and with disastrous results.

Yolisa Ngeseki alleges poor care and a shortage of ambulance led to the death of her 3-year-old girl after she contracted Hepatitis B.

With high levels of traditional medicine use among pregnant women at Bertha Gxowa Hospital outside Johannesburg, traditional medicine should always be a topic of discussion between health workers and patients, says one doctor.

One test may mean the difference between life and death for people with HIV on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says many patients are not getting viral load testing.

To mark World AIDS Day, the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) Mpumalanga branch picketed outside a local clinic as the AIDS lobby continues to complain about poor service delivery.

As government officials took to podiums nationwide to deliver World AIDS Day speeches, HIV activists held a much quieter gathering in Johannesburg to reflect on 10 years of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.