Grassroots Solutions
Honduras
In Trujillo, Honduras women living with HIV/AIDS came together to help each other and to help others living with HIV/AIDS in villages surrounding their town, forming a group called Nuevo Amanacer. They provide support and care to each other, and they are buildiing a community center for operations and for people living with HIV/AIDS to spend the night when they are in town for visits to the clinic or hospital.
Kenya
In Kenya, GROOTS Kenya member Shibuye Community Health Workers, founders of the Kakamega district Home-Based Care Alliance, conducted Local to Local Dialogues - dialogues between grassroots caregivers and provincial administrators, district officers and local chiefs to share caregivers' perspectives, discuss community challenges and develop collaborative solutions. The women's group expressed willingness to track resources, identify existing groups in the area, and support existing coordinating structures of the local Constituency AIDS Council (CACC) - an inaccessible, non-transparent entity. The successful partnership and collaboration between the grassroots home-based caregivers' group and the local leaders benefits the community, and gives more authority to the home-based caregivers' group, which now intervenes on community issues of domestic violence and property grabbing as well.
"If this pandemic is to one day be defeated . . . it will be overcome because of the remarkable community capacities." - Stephen Lewis
Malawi
In Lilongwe, Malawi, Paradiso House Home-Based Care has established a successful bakery in the community, making breads, rolls and scones which they sell to their neighbors at a reasonable rate. The profits go to pay school fees for orphans in the community. Caregivers have also reported great benefits from learning to bake and run a small business. Said one grassroots caregiver, "I've learned a lot. Now I'm a full-time baker. I've been strengthened. I didn't think I had any leadership skills, but now I'm a team leader here."
In Dowa district, Malawi, Mchotsankawa was formed in 2005 as a support group for people living with HIV. They began undertaking HBC because so many of them were sick, and the care available was inadequate, particularly because the high levels of stigmatization. The group members felt that they should become caregivers to care for each other without stigma or a sense of separation from the people who needed care. The caregivers do home visits. They bring food, soap and medicines to their sick friends. They encourage treatment adherence, do household chores and help with home repairs. The hospital refers patients to them. They care not only for people living with HIV, but also for people with cancer and TB. The group does a lot of outreach in the community, at schools and youth clubs. They also have their own netball team and a vegetable garden.
South Africa
Moutse district, South Africa lies in a disputed area between two provinces since the end of apartheid. A women's self-help group, Women Together in Development has taken leadership out of necessity and with a heartfelt desire to improve their community and lives of the people in it. The nearest hospital is quite far, and the group provides home-based care for people living with HIV and the elderly, they patrol the community to ensure safety, they have begun livelihoods activities such as making handicrafts, sewing and banking, feed destitute orphans, and protect people from land grabbing.
Zambia
In Kabwe district, north of Lusaka, Zambia, Chisomo Home-Based Care has leveraged a piece of land at their local church which they use to grow food for their friends who are at home and in the hospice. When there is a surplus, the caregivers take the produce for their own use, or sell to boost their income. In Lusaka, Zambia, members of the Homeless and Poor People's Federation savings schemes began to provide care for people living with HIV. They visit people who are sick because of HIV, or other chronic illnesses, to provide direct care and ensure treatment adherence for ART and TB drugs. They clean patient's homes, wash the patients, try to bring food to those who are sick and especially those on drugs (usually by collecting a little food from everyone in the savings scheme), take the patient to the health facility, monitor treatment adherence. They are now extending their work to caring for orphans and assisting people in making gardens. Many of the caregivers are also HIV positive themselves, and they have been champions in breaking the silence and reducing stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.
1
