Health Dept dismisses volunteers’ accusations

The department of health has dismissed as untrue allegations by 173 QwaQwa home-based care volunteers who claim they have not been paid the stipends they were promised by the department for over a decade, The aggrieved volunteers, who have allegedly been practising without pay for more than 13 years, are up in arms over what they call a breach of promise by the department.

The volunteers’ duties include taking care of patients with infectious and chronic diseases by making sure that they adhere to their treatment and take medication according their to prescriptions, and cooking, feeding as well as bathing those who need extra care.

They say they have been doing this with the understanding that, after undergoing various training courses, they would be considered for learnership opportunities and be trained into professional health workers.

Initially, there were more than 1 000 home-based care volunteers, but the bulk of them have been trained and redeployed as nursing assistants; pupil nursing auxiliaries and clerks, while those without matric have been taken up by the department as cleaners.

The remaining 173 claim that their hopes of ever becoming professional health workers were shattered when the local health authorities told them they were surplus to requirements.

One of them, Nthabiseng Mokoena, said they were shocked to be told that home-based care volunteers no longer existed and encouraged them to join non-governmental organisations which might need their services.

“We approached the Manapo Mopeli Hospital’s department of learnership and were told that home-based care volunteers had been stopped and all such volunteers had been placed on different training programmes, based on their skills and level of education. We felt used, as some of us had even been infected with diseases like TB, while others had even died.”

Her sentiments were echoed by her colleague, Morongoe Moloi.

“We asked to go back to school and finish our matric as it was the minimum qualification required for learnerships. We passed our matric and even submitted our names in order to be considered for future learnership opportunities, but nothing has come of it. Recently, they sent someone we know to Bethlehem to train as an auxiliary. We know that four of us here were in a list drawn up at the provincial office, but we have never been called.”

Selloane Makoala said the major challenge the volunteers are faced with is that they are no longer employable as the market prefers young people.

“I have worked as a volunteer for the past 13 years. Now that I am 36-years-old I am no longer eligible for a learnership. All this is contrary to the promises we were made when we were being lobbied for voluntarism. The worst part is that we have been exposed to diseases as, unlike nurse, we were never giver protective masks.”

 However, learnerships manager and skills coach, Masita Isaac Mahwana, has rubbished the volunteers’ claims.
“We have not been selective when offering learnerships to home-based care volunteers. Those who had been left out do not have a matric qualification, which is one of the primary requirements for the current learnership. We encouraged them to complete their matric. They are aware of that but they did not comply, and now they are crying wolf. If they think they had been lied to, they can lodge a formal complaint.”

Masita confirmed that home-based care volunteers had been phased out, and went on to advise those who have such experience, but are matric-less to approach the NGO’s or individuals who would like their elderly parents to be taken care of by someone with basic health care knowledge.

On the criteria used for learnerships, Masita said there had never been any learnership expressly reserved for home based care workers.

“However, knowing the role they play, when learnerships that fit them arose, we would give them preference; nonetheless, everybody who is unemployed is entitled to apply. During the selection process, we look into the level of education, age group and employment equity targets to cover blacks, the youth and the disabled.”

More importantly we try to give opportunities to people coming from clinics that are in the rural areas. There are many projects like the National Development Youth Agency (NYDA), Operation Hlasela and Mfazwe Slilo which have their specific targets.”

A recent study on home-based care has established that many South African healthcare NGOs are exploiting volunteers providing home-based care.

The study by the Health Economics and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban, also found that South African home-based care programmes are often inadequately developed and their effectiveness is questionable. Such projects were often simply a response of crisis management, argued HEARD research consultant, Olagoke Akintola.

The South African government promotes voluntarism as an answer to the demand for home-based caregivers to cope with the rising number of people infected with HIV; an estimated 21.5 percent of the country’s population is HIV positive.

The health department needs to review primary health care models in the face of HIV/AIDS, said Aktintola. It should refine volunteer-based programmes, provide stipends and assist caregivers to ultimately obtain formal employment.

Governments and health departments need to acknowledge that home-based care is not a cheap option, Akintola stated in his study.

Most care programmes in South Africa rely on unemployed volunteers from affected communities, who are usually female and unsalaried or, in a few cases, paid a small stipend.

Those who are willing to volunteer are already burdened because they are (predominantly) poor and affected by AIDS, he explained. Volunteer work aggravates their poverty, as many caregivers share food and other material goods with the patients they visit, spending long days working free of charge instead of looking for a paid job.