Masupatsela

NOSAKHELE HIV and AIDS PROJECT
DIRECTED and EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING

This is the story of a woman who is using her gift for healing, not to enrich herself, but to help other people. She is an integral part of her community and is not only playing a role in healing people, but in bringing people together and in healing the community.

Mama Deyi is a traditional healer in her 50s, who is based in Khayelitsha Site C. She grew up in Pondoland and arrived in Cape Town in 1989. She first received her calling to be a traditional healer when she was 10 years old, and although her father was also a traditional healer, she would not want to accept it. The years that followed were difficult: she became ill and after she married and had children, one of them passed away. She finally accepted her calling in 1994 after the death of her father and returned to the Eastern Cape for her training. She started her work as a traditional healer in 2000.

After practising for some time, she recognised that many people she was treating were suffering from malnutrition and this stopped them from getting well. At first she started growing vegetables outside her house, but then linked up with local schools, and along with other community members set up bigger gardens. The food grown here is used in her soup kitchen or is sold to raise funds. This project is called the Nosakhele Food Garden.

She was encouraged by another member of the Traditional Healers’ Association to go for training in Home Based Care, especially around HIV and AIDS. She has converted one of the shacks on her homestead into a little clinic with five beds for patients who are too ill to look after themselves. As a healer, Mama Deyi believes that it is best for Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to work hand in hand, with the strengths of one supporting and supplementing the strengths of the other. Her work has been recognised internationally and she has received some funding from PEPFAR, among other organisations.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE NOSAKHELE HIV and AIDS PROJECT:
contact Mama Deyi on +27 83 766 1887 and make sure you have someone who speaks Xhosa with you to talk to her!

TRADITIONAL AND WESTERN MEDICINE CAN WORK TOGETHER – FOLLOW MAMA DEYI’S LEAD:
- she saw the how HIV and AIDS was affecting her family and community and decided to take action
- she started a food garden and soup kitchen project
- she registered her organisation as an NPO
- she was able to raise some funding from international donors as well as using some of her own money
- she linked up with other traditional healers and caring people in her area
- she sends ill people to clinics and helps them with their treatment
- she created a care centre in her home.

WOZA MOYA
DIRECTED by AYANDA MNCWABE
EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING

Woza Moya means ‘come breath’ or ‘come spirit’ and the project was born from the caring spirits of the Buddhist and wider community in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal. When two employees of the Buddhist Retreat Centre died of AIDS, Sue Heddon and others realised that they were living amidst a silent human tragedy. Following discussions with various stakeholders, including traditional leadership, the Woza Moya project was founded with the aim of lessening the impact of HIV and AIDS in the area and the attendant poverty that feeds into the pandemic. They linked up with the San Francisco Buddhist community, who raised funds in order for the project to get going.

One of Woza Moya’s important goals is to provide care and support for those infected and affected with HIV and AIDS, including the provision of medication. Prevention and education are also a big focus: part of prevention is poverty alleviation through income generation projects and in this episode we meet Benedicta Memela, the Income Generation Co-ordinator.

Benedicta grew up caring for other people – a quality she believes she inherited from her grandmother. She joined Woza Moya as a Community Health Care Worker walking miles each day to visit people and see what help they needed. In her role as Income Generation Co-ordinator she works with The Department of Agriculture and organizations like Heifer helping people to earn an income and provide for their families. Despite the difficulties of the work – especially when she was an unpaid volunteer – Benedicta is committed to what she does and the difference that she can bring to peoples’ lives. This spirit is shared by all those involved with Woza Moya.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE WOZA MOYA PROJECT:
call their office on +27 39 834 0023 or visit their web site.

TO SET UP A SIMILAR PROJECT WHERE YOU LIVE:
- assemble all the stakeholders to discuss the issue of HIV and AIDS
- raise funds from buddhist communities that share your philosophy
- registered an NPO
- train your home caregivers
- rais further funding for staff and volunteers
- establish legal and agricultural services
- request land from traditional leadership
- build your centre, like the Woza Moya Centre, to suit your community needs.

SADAG (SOUTH AFRICAN DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY GROUP)
In 2007 we featured a story on the work that SADAG is doing around South Africa. Mental health and mental illness is easily overlooked by most of us, but SADAG does important work, educating people about mental health. In this episode we speak with Cassey Amoor to find out how the organisation has grown and learn that their work includes primary schools today.

FOR MORE ON SADAG:
contact them on +27 11 262 6396 or visit their web site.

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE NOSAKHELE AND WOZA MOYA STORIES: