Field Trip

Kid trying to figure out why I am pointing my phone at him

This week I was able to spend some MUCH needed time in the field.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t  loooooovvvveeeee compiling data and writing reports in the office, but I am always happy to have the opportunity to visit the communities where we work.  I think it gives me a much better perspective of how the TB project works.  Sure I can look at the numbers and see how many people are benefitting from our services each month, but going door-to-door lets you see who these people are and how much of an impact providing something as simple as an HIV test or TB screening can have.  

Fieldworker counseling a client in her home

This week I went to Sweetwaters, which is an area just outside of King Williams Town, mainly to observe our fieldworkers in action and help identify/correct any problems they are having with the project.  Let me just say, our fieldworkers work SO HARD.  They are so great at interacting with the clients and you can tell that they really have a passion for what they do. 

Mrs. Ntutu explaining how to followup with clients

One of the best parts about being in the field is that you get to see the people our programs reach.   For me, it’s nice to actually put faces to the numbers that I deal with all day especially when you can see the impact providing door-to-door services provides on an individual level.  Even more awesome is seeing Mrs. Ntutu in action.  She is the project supervisor and she is SO good at her job.  When she is in the field, you can just tell she is totally in her element.  She loves teaching the fieldworkers and interacting with the clients.  She is the person who definitely goes above and beyond the services of our project to make sure that our clients are being linked up with the services they need.  The world could definitely use more people like her.  

World AIDS Day

Bongiwe and Ntando posing with CMMB car

On Saturday, CMMB was invited to be an exhibitor at the Eastern Cape World AIDS Day event in Mdantsane.  There was a huge build-up for the whole month prior to the event to engage the community in health education surrounding HIV/AIDS as well as encouraging them to attend the event.  CMMB took part in this build up during the month of November by going to the taxi ranks in King Williams Town and offering testing services to people coming and going in and out of town as well as promoting the event in Mdantsane.  We also joined with the Department of Health’s door-to-door services (obviously our specialty) and visited homes in the areas surrounding Mdantsane.  During this outreach CMMB did their normal practice of offering counseling and testing for HIV as well as screening and testing for TB.

Ntando setting up his testing station

On World AIDS Day, the event was held in an outdoor stadium where the finals for the youth soccer, netball, and boxing tournaments that had taken place in East London during the previous week were played.  The events also included speeches from keynote speakers and focused on youth outreach to promote their goal of a generation with 0 new cases of HIV.  Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side.  It was cold, rainy, and windy which definitely put a damper on the festivities.  But still, all things considered, the event was pretty well attended.  CMMB had a tent set up and offered HIV counseling and testing as well as general health information pamphlets.  We had to get creative to create private areas for people to test.  Solutions included creating makeshift partitions in the corners as well as using the CMMB car as a testing “room”. 

Timbela counseling a client

Family poses while waiting in line for testing

For me, I rarely get to go to the field so it was fun to watch our fieldworkers interact with clients.  They are all so passionate about what they do and so good when it comes to interacting with clients.  Even though it was a busy day from start to finish, it seemed like everyone on the team really enjoyed themselves.

This might actually be working!!

I just wanted to share a really awesome story that was shared with me yesterday.  Im sure it won't give you all the "warm fuzzies" that it gave me but I am going to share it with you anyway....

I was at a meeting yesterday with the sub district office for SA Department of Health (they have partnered with CMMB for the TB project that just started a few months ago) and the clinic programs manager, Mrs. Nelani, shared a great story with us.  She was at a funeral (this is not the "great" part of the story)this past weekend in Ndevana, and area where CMMB provides testing services, for a man that had died from TB (also not the "great" part I am referring to).  At the funeral they spoke about how sad this death was because it could have been prevented.  Then as more people got up to speak they kept talking about how TB is a disease that needs to be taken seriously and pleading with people in the congregation who are on TB treatment to stick to their regimens.  They also talked about the importance of people being tested for TB and that, as a community, they can prevent this disease etc etc. 

After the funeral Mrs. Nelani was so impressed with the information that these speakers were sharing with the congregation.  She asked one of the speakers how he and everyone else knew so much about TB.  The man told her that he and his community had learned about TB from "some Catholics" that have been coming door-to-door offering HIV and TB testing.  As soon as he said that, Mrs. Nelani knew the "Catholics" he was referring to was actually CMMB.

From my own perspective, I think it is really encouraging to see that the education we are providing to clients is really helping people to understand more about TB as a disease.  Of course the testing services we provide are important, but in all honesty, the health education that accompanies testing is the sustainable piece of this program that is going to last when project is over, hopefully helping to prevent new cases of TB in the future.  And after all, that's why we do what we do.