Fond farewells and a great time was had by all!

On the morning of the Tshepo festival  the health team went to say farewell to the clinic staff. They were very appreciative of our visit and have extended an invitation to return next year. We thanked them for their support and for their honesty. In addition, we explained that we would be writing an update to the report that we produced last year and that we would forward it to their Manager in the hope that she will share this with them. Our parting gift to them was a Christmas card and a bumper tin of biscuits!

We leave the clinic in the knowledge that although there has not been dramatic change since last year, there have been some small improvements and our key message to the Thoughtful Path is that it is vital that the relationship that we have initiated is sustained in 2013. Our hope is that by doing so, there will be successful outcomes for both parties, but ultimately that the people of Munsieville will enjoy better health.

The Safety team said there farewells too to those who had supported our home visits. We all provided feedback to Project Hope on the key areas of development that they may wish to consider going forward.

As regards to the Tshepo festival- Wow!

Just under 2,000 children entered the Munsieville stadium for the 3^rd annual Tshepo Fesival. Some of the children got there up to 2 hours earlier so that they could get into the stadium first. Anyone who has organised any festival for children knows how difficult it is to pull these off! However with Project Hope staff, GSK Volunteers and an army of community support staff the event was a resounding success and was deemed to be the most successful yet.

There were many different events for the children to sing, dance and play musical instruments. The purpose of the festival was to provide a Christmas party for the children and the main theme was to promote health and safety in the home. The EHS team delivered a number of activities and displays which proved to be a hit with the children.

One of the really rewarding moments was being able to partner with the West Rand Disaster Planning unit. In joining up forces with the EHS team we combined our forces to deliver an enjoyable and educational experience for the children.

The health team focussed on paraffin ingestion and burns by using a doll who had previously been loaned by a local crèche and expertly repaired by our own seamstress Nicola! The safety team focussed on general aspects of paraffin safety and we got some great interaction with the children who were hungry to learn more on how they can provide a safer home for themselves.

There was lots of special moments for all the team but the one memory we all have is those lovely smiling faces of the children!

Arif, Nicola, Stacy, Robert, Duncan Bob and Veronica

A Case of Mistaken Identity



Today is the penultimate day in Munsieville. The health and safety team presented games and materials for the forthcoming Tshepo festival. These games consisted of ‘Pass the paraffin’, Spot the hazard’ and ‘Stop, drop and roll’. This is a game developed around a rap devised by our own Bob Dillin. Here it is…..’’Don’t run, scream and burn…..just stop, drop and roll….’. This is based on the key evacuation message from the Paraffin Safety Association but with cool moves!

The team also visited 13 creche facilities to evaluate the health and safety improvements from last year's visit whilst delivering face painting materials. This created great excitement among the children as face painting is loved by all in the community.

Those following our blog will have read about the humanitarian mission to provide a bed for a lovely lady whose name is Happiness. This was delivered today by Bob and Robert and was greeted by much warm grateful emotion. This was expressed by Happiness as the best Christmas present ever!

One light hearted event which occurred recently was a case of mistaken identity. This was a result of mixing up the names of the various volunteers here in Munsieville. Tidimalo and Buitomelo whose names sound similar when spoken quickly (especially Bob), resulted in the wrong person being collected for a meeting. Poor Tidimalo was unexpectedly collected by Bob and Arif instead of Buitomelo and both were left quite perplexed although were too polite to make a fuss. Bob did apologise and all is forgiven!  

On Wednesday the health team visited The Hope Centre, run by the USA branch of Project Hope, which covers the two communities of townships of Zandspruit and Cosmo City which includes both formal and informal structures.  The clinic, which opened fully three months ago, runs weight, blood sugar and blood pressure screening from a gazebo which is moved to a different area three times a week.  Those with signs of diabetes or hypertension are then referred to the clinic. The clinic is very organised and covers a catchment area of 200,000 people.  There are plans to expand the work to cover retinopathy screening and also for teams of local student nurses to gain experience by screening in the inhabitant’s homes.

In the afternoon the health team visited the Hands of Compassion health clinic in the countryside which is ran by one of the nurses who worked at the Munsieville clinic last year.  She was full of energy, enthusiasm and ideas and she enjoyed the benefits of having more space for the patients including segregated areas to reduce the spread of infection between patients.

The evening, we all enjoyed visiting the Lesedi Cultural Experience. This involved the opportunity to buy local crafts and then be taken by a ‘tribal warrior’ around Zulu, Basotho, Pedi and Xhosa mock villages.  As well as leaning some words and expressions from the local languages we were treated to a fantastic display of dancing and we joined in, before enjoying a meal of crocodile and ostrich casseroles!

Nicola and Duncan



Paraffin Safety Kit and the ‘Jar of Hope’

 It is now the start of our second week in Munsieville and the focus has shifted to completing our objectives for the clinic, shack safety and preparing for the health and safety event at the Tshepo festival. There was an early meeting with the Project Hope team at the Children’s Embassy and the main point of discussion focussed on how we can empower the community to make their homes safer. The idea of a home safety kit was thrashed out and the opportunity to devise a community co-operative which would allow people to save for paraffin stoves and other key equipment to make their homes safer.

Robert and Veronica went to purchase some locally available equipment with Imelda, one of the Health Promotion staff, who is now working with Project Hope. After plenty of bartering we managed to obtain all the key equipment which we consider to be best practice. Imelda gave a great demonstration on how to operate the safer type of paraffin stove, compared to the existing dangerous stoves, which are used today. These currently pose a high risk of fires and injuries to the people in the community.

The safer paraffin stove on the left and the current unsafe stove that are widely used currently.

In the meantime, Duncan and Bob were touring the community to deliver the key health and safety messages. They revisited a lovely elderly lady called Happiness, who the team had met a few days before. This poor lady had her bed stolen while she was moving to a safer area from the flooding. On hearing the sad plight of her having to sleep on the floor, the team sprung into action. After a few local discussions, the team had identified a bed for her after a kind donation by Betty, the Project Hope Operations Director. Our humanitarian mission will hopefully be completed tomorrow much to the delight of the team.

While working in the community we have been demonstrating the safe candle device and thanks to Duncan’s artistic talents we have made this a much more attractive feature. We even think this should be a new Project Hope campaign called the ‘Jar of Hope’.

As clinic activities continue, it is apparent that the Munsieville clinicians provide very good clinical care, adhering to evidence based guidelines. Arif, Nicola, and Stacy met with Hazel, the clinical manager, on how to build bridges with The Thoughtful Path once we depart.

In the afternoon the whole team gathered to have the first full meeting, to plan for the Tshepo festival. A full room of volunteers and Project Hope staff had a healthy debate on what festival activities would involve. The EHS team are co-leading a health and safety event which  will cover the key risks of paraffin ingestion, fire and burns, by holding interactive and engaging activities with the children.

Stacy and Robert

Preparing for the Children’s Festival and the Lucky Escape of the Wildebeest

The Health Team continued working alongside the clinic staff in the busy TB Clinic. Tuberculosis and HIV are very common amongst the community and the health clinic is supported by volunteer groups who visit homes to check on the taking of medication. To us, this may seem radical but it is important to improve the compliance of medication taking, in order to reduce the spread of these conditions.

We noticed whilst in the clinic that the staff are very stretched, and are also challenged with tracking medical histories due to the ever increasing population diversity.

Midday saw both teams meet with the Children’s Embassy Youth and Health Promotion staff to plan the forthcoming Children’s Festival next Thursday. The GSK team were there providing support and encouragement, and were very impressed with the leadership roles played by the youth team in particular. The maturity and the way in which the young people ran the meeting were terrific to see. The main themes coming forward were, treatment of burns and poisoning through ingestion for the health team, and exiting from a burning shack, assembling a safe candle in a jar, and identification of hazardous objects in the home for the safety team.

After  a very busy and hot week the team enjoyed a little relaxation by visiting a local game reserve, and after much patient waiting, were very exited to see a lioness in the distance, spot and then chase a very worried Blue Wildebeest, who escaped by a whisker!  According to our guide this is a sight that the majority of visitors to the park will never see. 

Nicola & Duncan