Award for local clinic
2009-11-19
THE Mbekweni After Hour VCT Clinics Project has been awarded the prestigious Mail & Guardian Award in the category Investing in Life. At this private clinic, 250 people are tested for HIV every month, many of the tests taking place after hours, when the public have returned home from work. The success of this project is largely due to the commitment of their dedicated staff in addressing the HIV/Aids pandemic by giving up their evenings to make available times which suit the working citizens. Men were not using clinics during the day because of work commitments and they were arriving late for treatment. A male task team was thus formed and the need to improve male friendliness in clinics was discussed, as well as gender-based posters and awareness campaigns. This gave rise to the Mbekweni After Hour Clinic Project, a partnership between Metropolitan Holdings CSI, the Western Cape provincial department of health, the Be Part Yoluntu Centre and the University of Stellenbosch. The VCT After Hour Clinic Service has grown from a small weekly service in Stellenbosch to busy clinics at the Victoria Street clinic in Stellenbosch and Be Part Building in Mbekweni. The clinics are held once a week. People who are HIV positive can have their CD4 count assessed and a care plan will be drawn up and monitored by the clinic, if they so choose. The clinics try to keep patients active by regularly monitoring their health status. “Working people do seem to be accessing services on their way home, especially in Mbekweni where the clinic is well placed on the route between the shopping centre and residential area,” says Nicolene Neethling of Be Part. “Men make up 56% of the people using Mbekweni’s clinic. In state hospitals and other clinics and other clinic an average of only 20% of clients are men. “The after hour clinics are contributing significantly to making HIV testing and care accessible to working people. What is particularly exciting is that men are accessing the service in numbers,” The judges of this award were particularly impressed by this statistic, saying the involvement of men in such large numbers made the project unique. * The project, together with Be Part Yoluntu and other NGO’s, is planning a sports day for the youth on 1 December to commemorate World Aids Day at the Mbekweni sports ground. Contact Nicolene Neethling at 021-868-3991/2.
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