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TERAPROOF:User:desbreenDate:10/11/2010Time:09:37:51Edition:11/11/2010Thuthurecho111110Page:13 Zone:EE

EE - V1

(YHQLQJ (FKR Thursday, November 11, 2010 NEWS 13

Nurses earning ¤5,000 a year


CORK native Sr Kay Government help. Although here patients are bathed,
O’Neill, right, is the driving ARV and TB drugs are free, they have access to hot
force at Our Lady’s Hospice it’s always a worry how the water, clean nightclothes
in Kalingalinga in Lusaka. staff will be paid.” and nutritious food. Our
Born in Killeagh in east There are 65 people on the main aim is to control the
Cork, Sr Kay joined the staff at Our Lady’s, with pain and provide care for
missionaries in 1969 and nurses earning the whole person.”
was first stationed in approximately F5,000 a Sr Kay paid tribute to the
Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. year. people east Cork,
She did her nursing training In total, there are 13 particularly in Killeagh, for
at St Thomas’ in London professional staff and the supporting her over the
and worked in a Guilford director of Our Lady’s rest are general workers years.
Hospital before moving to Hospice in Kalingalinga in and care givers. “Family and friends from the
Zambia in 1982. Lusaka. “We give patients access to Midleton area have been a
Since then she has been At present, some there are whatever they need — a wonderful support over the
stationed at the Lubwe 5,000 registered at the good diet, comfortable bed years. I’m here almost 30
Mission in Luapula 30-bed hospice, but some and clean sheets. In years now and every time I
Province, the Copperbelt, 800 have passed away. Government hospitals, go home, they fund-raise
Kasanka and is now the She said: “We don’t get nurses are stretched, but and are very generous.”

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Rosie Mwitelela, manager, and care-giver for the home based care pro-
gramme in the township of Matero. Picture: Amy Colley

Rosie: ‘We
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are trained
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them love’
ROSIE MWITELELA is a
grandmother who now cares
The numbers have reduced so much
because of ARVs and the workload has
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for her four orphan grandchil- lightened. We used to have over 300
dren. patients, but the ARVs have minim-
ised deaths,” she added.
A mother-of-five, two of whom died, The volunteers bathe, feed and clean
Rosie manages a group of home-based the sick and fetch water for them.
care volunteers in the Matero area of The home-based care scheme star-
Lusaka. ted in 1997 and many of the 33 volun-
The home-based care programme teers have lost their own children to
sees volunteers looking after patients HIV/Aids.
in their own homes after they’ve been Erica Kangwa lost her second
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discharged from hospital. daughter to HIV and had seen the dif- ������ �������� ������� �������� ����
Rosie said: “Home-based care used ference a caregiver made to her life
to focus on HIV but, with ARVs, before she died.
people are much stronger and don’t “Before my daughter’s death, I
need as much care. We also help didn’t have the money to take her to
orphans and those they are dependent
on.”
hospital, but a caregiver helped me,”
she said.
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The volunteers currently have 251 Her daughter was just 19 when she ������ �� �� ������� ���� �� ���� ���� ����� ������ ���������� ���
orphans or vulnerable children that died, but now Erica devotes her time
they look after. to helping others. ��� ������� ���� �����
“Some orphans are double orphans “I was attracted to the job and
and they are looked after by their rel- wanted to help,” she says.
atives who help with education. Some All of the volunteers are double job-
stay with their older grandparents. bing. They have to take care of their
“We’ve started a feeding programme own family and then look after
because children were not getting two orphans and the sick in the parish.
or three meals a day. A typical day sees the volunteers
“There are some that don’t need ma- visiting their clients between 8am and ���� �� ��� ��� ���� �� ���� ����� ������ �����
terial help, but are lacking in love and 10am to bathe them, give them food ����� �� ������������������� �� ���� ���� �� �� ���
we are trained to talk and counsel and they follow up with another visit
them and give them love.” around 2pm.
The volunteers also care for 155 pa- Refugees who have travelled alone
tients with HIV or Aids. from as far away as Sierra Leone, ������� ��������� ����� ��� ���������� ������ ��� �������� ��������� ���� �������� � �������� �� ������ �� ��� ��� ����� ���� ��
Rosie said: “We go into homes, see Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi and the ������ ���� ����������� ������ ����� ������ ������ �� ��������� �� ��� ������� ���� �� ��������
how the patients are doing, what we Democratic Republic of Congo also
can do to help and check their diets. rely on the volunteers.

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