Winter blues for poor families
EASTERN CAPE – As winter takes hold and doctors and nurses urge people to stay warm in their homes, difficulties mount for poor people who live in poverty and homelessness.
Our Health
OurHealth is Health-e’s network of community journalists based in rural villages and townships across South Africa. We bring you grassroots reporting from the people who cover the communities they live in.
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Nurses stop working after hours over safety concerns
LIMPOPO - Nurses at Mutale Health Centre in Tshilamba, outside Thohoyandou, have stopped working after hours, saying they do not feel safe at night inside dilapidated and damaged buildings.
Centre for the elderly faces closure
LIMPOPO – Denzhe-Lwamutsha Place of Care in Lwamondo Village, outside Thohoyandou – home to over 100 elderly people, is facing closure.
A 13-year-old forced to become mom’s caregiver
MPUMALANGA – The 13-year-old daughter of a single mother who recently survived a second stroke has become the woman’s caregiver.
EC Health cracks down on ambulance attacks
Eastern Cape – The Department of Health – outraged by continuous attacks on ambulances in the province – has come up with a plan to combat the problem.
‘Young people do not like using condoms’
LIMPOPO - Young people who do not like using condoms during sexual intercourse in Vhembe are the main cause behind the high rate of unwanted babies and the spread of sexual transmitted infections such as HIV.
Mthatha residents finally get a cardiology lab
EASTERN CAPE - Residents of the former Transkei area who previously had to travel huge distances to access cardiology services finally have a new cardiology unit at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha.
KZN man opens a traditional hospital
KWAZULU-NATAL – A traditional healer from Ingwavuma north of KZN has made history by forming a private hospital in Bhambanana area at Mhlabuyalingana.
‘I am not cursed,’ says epileptic man
MPUMALANGA - After years of living in isolation because of his tendency to have long seizures and lose consciousness, 47-year-old epileptic Zakhele Sibiya says he refuses to remain alone and now wants to be accepted as part of society.
Help needed for three starving brothers
LIMPOPO – Three siblings from Duthuni village, outside Thohoyandou have been left alone to fend for themselves after their mother was left bedridden by a stroke last December.
Sports offers a brighter future for disabled learners
LIMPOPO - Rural parents who refuse to allow their disabled and intellectually impaired children to participate in sports derail their progress and rob them a chance to learn valuable life skills and possibly also block off career possibilities.
Rural communities willing to donate blood
Rural communities believe that while donating blood is an important service, most donors live in urban areas while villagers feel little is being done to target them as an untapped source of blood.
Blood connects us all – World Blood Donor Day
EASTERN CAPE – Every year on June 14 countries around the globe celebrate World Blood Donor Day – an event that serves to thanks voluntary donor for their blood.
HIV positive mom’s breastfeeding worries
LIMPOPO – After living in denial of being HIV positive, a rural mother has finally come to accept her status through a process of questioning whether or not to breastfeed her new baby.
Patients forced to sleep on the floor
EASTERN CAPE – Patients from rural Mbizana, who rely on state transport to get them to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Umthatha for specialist treatment, have to sleep on the floor while they wait for an ambulance.