Living Hope Primary Health Clinic in Masiphumelele, South Africa

I have seen Masiphumelele.

Masiphumelele, formerly known as Site 5 is one of the newer townships in Cape Town, South Africa. The township was renamed by the residents, mainly Xhosa speaking, to mean “We will succeed.” However, during these past few weeks I have learned that the residents have a distant journey to success when it comes to health issues. Masi was created around the time I was born, early 1990’s primarily from members of Khayeltisha Township (one of the largest south African townships with roughly half a million residents), who worked to towns close to Fish Hoak. Often times the town members had to travel over 30 km to get to work, sometimes taking up to two hours on public transportation. Masiphumelele is an ideal location for workers of Fish Hoak and nearby areas.

The town was originally designed for only 500 families – with no intention of community business or markets. However, the township has grown to over 20,000 people – from diverse backgrounds including the Eastern Cape, Somalia, Zimbabwe, and much more. The 500 original homes are still obvious today. Each of the original establishments has turned into the center of the “yards” that exist today. As you walk along side these infrastructures, you enter a different world. Surrounding a common area in the backyard of these homes (typically only 15 x 15 feet) are between 6-10 shacks of different families. (During one of our TB campaign days, I counted up to 16 shacks behind a single yard.)

Throughout our intership, Derek Pediford, Eamon Hal, Walter Stewart and I were able to assist Living Hope which is the only primary health care facility in Masi. Our typical mornings consist of assessing the patients and preparing them for their meeting with the health care physician or nurse. We worked with patients of all ages, especially ill children and young adult females. We also assisted the clinic’s pharmacy in counting pills, labeling, and filing patient records (which was the only boring part of our time at the clinic). We also had the incredible opportunity of shadowing an HIV/AIDS specialist where we were able to observe her monthly appointments. We had the unique experience of also prepping HIV patients for their meeting with the physician (sometimes mothers and infants both HIV positive coming in for treatment.) In the afternoon we initiated the clinics first door to door Tuberculosis campaign. We essentially visited the local houses in the township and educated them about Tuberculosis, its causes and symptoms and encouraged them to get tested for the disease.

Since most of our days involve the same type of work and clients, the rest of this blog will focus on topic-based observations that often are acquired in more than one day or visit. Therefore the rest of this journal will be on an ongoing editing spree during my time in South Africa- as I observe and learn more about each of the following topics that I encounter: Over medication, sanitation, population trends, HIV-AIDS, TB, xenophobia, family planning, and prevention of mother to child transmission. I will be comparing a lot of the issues to similar problems in the United States, since that is the culture that I currently understand best.