A time for winding down ...
The HIV Hope Project in Hogsback has been running for the
last 5 years. During this time many patients have
been assisted and their health dramatically improved due to the
provision of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) through the Project.
In 2006, when the Project started, the scenario in the Eastern Cape with regards to patients with HIV/AIDS was grim, to say the least. Very few of the regional hospitals were accredited to dispense ARVs, and in the region of rural Hogsback the closest hospital dispensing ARVs was Cecilia Makiwane hospital (CMH) in Mdantsane, just outside East London. This meant that a patient who needed ongoing ARVs had to travel 280 kms to get to CMH and back each month. The cost of transport made it well-nigh impossible for them even to consider starting with ARVs.
The number of patients being treated by the Project has grown steadily since it started, and at the time of registration of the Hope Project in 2006 as an NGO with the Department of Social Development some 25 HIV positive patients were being treated with ARVs – in addition to the many who were coming every month for monitoring, but who were not yet on ARVs. In early 2010 the Victoria Hospital in Alice received accreditation to dispense ARVs, and a pharmacist was appointed to the hospital. This meant that patients could be referred to this hospital for treatment, though the Hogsback patients still had to travel the 60kms each month to get their medication.
Over the last two years the Project has had the generous assistance of the American funder PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Program for AIDS relief), as well as steady support from a group of American churches. With this help the Hope Project has been reasonably financially stable and has been in a position to treat some 85 patients a month (monitoring, blood tests, and ARVs). In addition, a holistic approach has been followed in treating and caring for these patients. Not only have they received their necessary ARVs, but all related diseases were also taken care of. Income-generating projects (African drum-making and vegetable-gardening) were also started to address some of the pressing needs of the patients, most of whom were at a very low income level.
During the course of 2011 a number of the government health clinics in the Tyume valley near Hogsback also received accreditation to dispense ARVs, and this has significantly changed the picture as regards accessibility for the patients. The previously acute need for the Hope Project to dispense ARVs has therefore lessened significantly. At the same time, PEPFAR funding has ceased in most parts of South Africa, as this has only been an emergency fund.
The time has therefore come to wind down the HIV Hope Project, and already most patients being treated through the Project have been referred to nearby government health facilities where they will be taken care of.
It has been a privilege to serve these patients over the last 5 years, and their joys and sorrows have been shared with the health workers of the HIV Hope team.
A word of special thanks is due to each member of the team who has worked on the project – you have made a difference to many patients' lives. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to our chairman and finance person, Dave Harbottle (chartered accountant) who accurately and painstakingly kept all the financial records and reports. The committee of the Project has met regularly, and their work has also been appreciated. A sincere word of thanks to Prof Ben Bester who designed and updated the Project's website regularly.
Our financial donors (especially PEPFAR and the churches in the US), as well as members of the Hogsback community, have been very generous and encouraging, as without this support the Project could not have functioned over these last 5 years.
The HIV Hope Project will cease functioning at the end of January 2012, when the last of the patients have been referred to other medical facilities. We wish the patients the very best, and put them in God's care.
We can echo the words of the philosopher in Ecclesiastes: “Everything that happens in this world, happens at the time God chooses.... the time for planting and the time for pulling up...." (Good News Translation).