Living Hope

LIVING RIGHT 

Prevention is better than cure!  There are no truer words when it comes to the as-yet-incurable HIV and AIDS virus.  Because of this, Living Hope has placed its greatest human resources in the area of Prevention, which can be described as ”the front line army” in the battle against HIV and AIDS.  Using both short and long term strategies, Prevention aims to halt the spread of this disease among the already infected population with which it works, and reaches out to children and youth in the hope for  future  AIDS-free generations.

Living Hope runs a comprehensive HIV and AIDS prevention program based on a commitment to abstinence, faithfulness in marriage, testing and support that touches the lives of thousands of children and adults in six communities.  Pre and Post HIV and AIDS counselling done in five government clinics and one hospital, involve more than 5000 people annually. Three types of support groups HIV and AIDS, Chronic Disease Lifestyle and Mother Care provide a network of spiritual, social and psychological support to those men and women who participate in them.  

There are three distinct programmes presented in our prevention program:

Health Counsellors

Living Hope presently has 23 health counsellors working in 5 government clinics, 2 satellite clinics, 2 local hospitals and a mobile clinic. The Health counsellors are involved in pre-counselling with people on an individual basis who are going to be tested for HIV and then post-counselling once the person has received their test result.  They educate their clients on how to live a sexual lifestyle which does not transmit HIV and promote a healthy Biblically based sexual lifestyle.

Some of the counsellors are also involved in preparing those needing to go onto Anti-retroviral treatment for this life-long commitment and then following up on them to ensure they do not suffer from any adverse effects from the treatment and that they do not default from the treatment, leading to resistance.

The mobile team are based at our Capricorn site and run counselling and testing clinics for HIV and TB at various community venues, such as taxi ranks, shopping malls, community events,  and even beaches.

The Health counsellors require specialised training and are a dynamic, committed team of passionate men and women representing Living Hope and more importantly Jesus, wherever they work.

Life Skills Educators

The Life Skills Department has been restructured in the new year. 

There are now 18 Life Skills Educators.  There are now 4 programmes running in the mornings:

1. Primary Schools—Following a very successful meeting with personnel from the Department of Education, the LSE's are taking fewer classes in the schools but continue to teach all the topics more in line with Living Hope and our vision/mission.
2. Parenting Workshops—these workshops are training facilitators from local churches to teach parenting courses to their congregations.
3. Teen Clubs—High schools are being visited in order to invite teenagers to join the teen clubs.  We are hoping to make more of an impact on this age group and grow leaders from the groups.
4. Informal Crèches—a life skills curriculum has been written and is being used with 9 informal crèches to teach the “mamas” how to better shape their learners with basic Life skills. 

Running parallel to this programme is the “wait 4 me” campaign which encourages children to sign up and commit to “abstain from sex until marriage,” and the “Eve Project,” which is a project whereby we encourage donors to donate feminine hygiene products to encourage young girls to continue their education while they are menstruating.

Support Groups
 

Living Hope runs both Chronic Disease and HIV+ support groups in all the communities in which we work. These groups are run by 24 members of the community who Living Hope has trained with basic health education. The meetings are held in various homes and community venues and each meeting has a time of reading the Bible and praying. 

In the chronic disease support groups the clients will learn about high blood pressure, diabetes, foot care, nutrition, eyecare, physical exercise, TB, HIV and other diseases that we feel need to be covered in conjunction with the local clinic in that area.

 Due to stigma and secrecy,those who are HIV+ prefer to meet with other HIV+ people to receive psycho-social support and information specifically relating to those who are HIV+. They also discuss  the importance of disclosure, knowing your CD4 count, good nutrition and anti-retroviral treatment.  These leaders are educated on all that the chronic disease support groups cover because many HIV+ people succumb to these chronic diseases due to their lowered immune system.

A new development has been that of support groups for HIV+ mothers who have just given birth.  We have an extremely successful pregnant mother-to-child transmission programme in the area but have found that there is a need for more support and education for the mothers of newborns.