It
is Tuesday and Mary Tanda arrives at the house of a “client”
who is living with HIV/AIDS. One of the first things she does
is check to see whether the client has developed bedsores. When
she discovers there are bedsores on the left side, she treats
them. Then she shows the family members how to turn the patient
to avoid future sores as well as how to treat them. Mary is
a care facilitator of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society’s
home-based care programme, and she calls her patients “clients”.
Like Mary, dozens of Red Cross care facilitators visit people
living with HIV/AIDS every week, exercising their essential
first aid skills. Their aim is to support the families with
some basic medical supplies, sometimes food, and teach them
how to nurse the patient at home.
The supervisor of the Chitungwiza home-based care project, Loveness
Samugadza explains that home nursing constitutes a major component
of the support that the Zimbabwe Red Cross gives to families
affected by HIV and AIDS. “We demonstrate to family members
how to treat sores, bathe and feed the client,” she explains.
Before Mary leaves the client’s house, she inspects her
kit to ensure that all the medicines are in place. She also
inspects her uniform, made up of a blue dress, blue jersey and
brown shoes, to check it is as immaculate as when she put it
on earlier in the day, before mounting her bicycle to do her
rounds.
“Hygiene is very important in caring for the sick. If
you are not careful about hygiene, you risk infecting the client
or the client infecting you. It is the first lesson taught in
our community-based first aid,” explains Loveness. Before
assuming her current position, Loveness was a first aid instructor
with the Zimbabwe Red Cross for 11 years.
The HIV/AIDS home-based care programme of the Zimbabwe Red Cross
has, from its inception in 1992, regarded first aid as the first
line of training for its care facilitators, because of the centrality
of home nursing in caring for the clients. Its knowledge is
a prerequisite among the volunteers selected as care facilitators,
because first aid, which is the initial step in training people
in home nursing, reinforces compassion for the client, teaches
hygiene and other practical ways to care for a patient. Loveness
sums it up this way: “First aid opens a person’s
mind about the needs of people and how to care for them.”
The Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, Emma
Kundishora, explains the essential role of first aid. “The
country is facing the daunting task of addressing some of the
challenges posed by HIV and AIDS. We have identified home-based
care, among other interventions, as an integral part of responding
to the disease, and our first aid expertise has been a natural
stepping stone to developing the programme,” she says.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross has been conducting training in first
aid since 1981 in all the ten provinces of the country, with,
as its main objective, to minimise disasters and accidents in
communities, by imparting life-saving skills. More than 100
Zimbabwe Red Cross instructors offer a variety of courses including
basic to advanced first aid, specialized training in industrial
and mining contexts, accident prevention, home nursing and training
of trainers. The Red Cross first aid certificate is a determining
credential to obtain general nurse aide work at government health
institutions.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross has made a deliberate effort to target
vulnerable communities for first aid training, where needed.
Courses are offered to these communities free of charge, for
example, where there is no clinic within a considerable radius.
About 25 000 people are trained through the community-oriented
project, on an annual basis. The Red Cross also conducts first
aid training in the private sector, particularly with companies
involved in heavy industrial activities such as mining, for
a fee. Some 60 000 people in the corporate sector are trained
each year.
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| Mary
is a care facilitator of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society’s
home-based care programme, and she calls her patients
"clients". (p13251)
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| The
Zimbabwe Red Cross has been conducting training in first
aid since 1981 in all the ten provinces of the country,(p13250)
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