Cresta gives Diepsloot a lift
DIEPSLOOT - Home-based caregivers, who walk long distances through Diepsloot township every day to care for the thousands of people too ill to travel to a clinic, have been given a lift by Cresta Shopping Centre.
The centre management handed over a Toyota Quantum to Afrika Tikkun for the use by these caregivers. Speaking at Afrika Tikkun’s Wings of Life Centre in Diepsloot, Kapei wa Phahlamohlaka, asset manager of Pareto (the holding company to Cresta Shopping Centre) said, “We are delighted to play some small role in the provision of care to so many people. Afrika Tikkun’s home-based caregivers are veritable angels who, until now, would travel vast distances on foot each day to care for those in their community who need it most.”
“What seems like a simple vehicle donation really has a far broader impact,” explained Sipho Mamize general manager of Afrika Tikkun Wings of Life centre in Diepsloot. “This vehicle will play an integral role in enabling our caregivers to ensure the well-being of the broader Diepsloot community. Our caregivers perform a great variety of duties: they visit patients daily to check that medication is taken at the right time, they check green cards for TB patients, collect and deliver medication, accompany ill patients to clinics, bath patients where necessary and clean the shacks of the very ill. They check on the child-headed households to make sure that they are getting all the attention they require and they see to the provision of food and food supplements. The donation of this vehicle means that they will be able to care for more people and impact more lives.”
Afrika Tikkun’s home-based caregivers fall within the organisation’s primary healthcare programme which incorporates child health, integrated management of childhood illnesses, ARV/HIV/TB adherence supervision, education on HIV/Aids, health education and palliative care for adults in addition to home-based care.
“Statistics show that Diepsloot has more than twice the national average of HIV/Aids cases, with the resultant high incidence of child-headed households. Taxi violence, domestic violence and women and child abuse are very prevalent. This is a tough situation by any standards for home-based caregivers to be working in,” explains Lubner.
“Our home-based caregivers are incredibly dedicated and hard-working. They are selfless, wonderful people and their services are severely stretched. We are grateful to Cresta Shopping Centre for making their lives a little easier.”
