Hantam Community Education Trust: Improving the lives of children

Thu, 26 November 2009

“Thank God for the Clinic. We now do not have to go 40 km to town and wait all day in a line. In the end they do not have the medicines we need”. Patient, Hantam Clinic.

FINAL REPORT: Hantam Community Education TrustWorkshops and immunisations improve the lives of children in the Hantam community

The Hantam Community Education Trust works in rural communities around Hantam in the Northern Cape. The Trust runs a clinic for the disadvantaged community that has limited access to primary healthcare. The clinic is run by a doctor, two nurses and three trained health workers. The facility provides services to approximately 326 adults and 289 children including 63 babies. The clinic houses the Hantam Community Pharmacy, which is the only dispensing pharmacy in a radius of nearly 150 kilometres.

Through this project, the Trust expanded the clinic’s reach by enabling health workers to run an immunisation programme for babies to prevent children from contracting and spreading common, but potentially life-threatening, illnesses.

Outputs and Impact

The health clinic is open to the community once a week. Babies and children are immunised against diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hib, hepatitis B and measles. During the period under review, 63 babies and toddlers between the ages of 1 to 5 participated in the clinic’s vitamin A campaign.

Hantam offered effective parenting workshops with 20 mothers attending the first workshop and 30 mothers attending the second. A total of 50 mothers thus gained knowledge on how their bodies work, helping to equip them to take charge of their own lives. The workshops focussed on the following topics:

• Awareness on immunisation and the need to take children to the clinic when it becomes necessary.
• Avoiding alcohol in order to take good care of their children
• Becoming role models for the children.
• Educating the community about the importance of local male role models in families.
• Establishing close bond between mothers and babies.
• Addressing own family problems.

While it is difficult to demonstrate the impact of the immunisation programme in the short term, the children and babies who benefitted from the programme are now more likely to enjoy healthy lives in the long term.

Expenditure

The total cost of the project was R20,316 all of which has been paid.

Description	Total Budget	Total Expenditure
Salaries – general workers	220	220
Administration	1 200	1 200
Clinic part-time	1 980	1 980
Insurance	200	200
Printing	136	136
Fundraising	200	200
Telephone	240	240
Postage	80	80
General expenses and rations	280	280
Medicines	13 200	13 200
Bank Charges	160	160
UIF,R.S.C, Workers’ Compensation	74	74
Transport	1 545	1 549
Building and furniture	420	420
TOTAL	20 316	20 316

The budget was used to cover part-salaries of general workers and clinic staff as well as administration and overheads contribute to the running of the clinic.

Challenges

Aside from the inherent difficulties of operating in a geographically dispersed community, the clinic did not experience any real challenges relating to the services they offer. They are well known in the community as they have been operating there for more than eight years with dedicated and well trained staff. The community make use of their services with little encouragement from Hantam as the community members are well-informed and are cooperative regarding immunisation.

Monitoring and evaluation

Every week, Hantam receives a full report from the clinic, giving the numbers of patients seen, ailments treated, medications administered, the cost of these medications and the funds contributed by the community towards the clinic service.

The effective parenting programme assists the parents with their babies. Through the weekly contact with parents, trainers monitor parenting and the health and development of the babies. They provide weekly and monthly reports detailing the schedule for the immunisation programme and whether immunisations are taking place at the appropriate times. The health programme facilitator gathers all the information and reports back to the project co-ordinator.

The report gives Hantam a clear indication of the status of the project and the health of the community making use of its services.

Conclusion

The Hantam Community Education Trust was successful in meeting the objectives of the immunisation and effective parenting programme, which will ensure better health for the children and their families.

It is difficult for Hantam to demonstrate the results achieved by immunisation, especially in the short term, as this is a prevention programme. However, a large body of research has shown the benefits of universal immunisation programmes, and this programme is thus likely to have a long term positive effect on the health of the community. The impact of the effective parenting programme is visible in the increasing number of parents who bring their children for immunisation.

Improving the lives of children

Thu, 5 March 2009

“I am so excited about everything that we are learning. I look after my child well now because I know how to.”

REPORT 2:Workshops and immunisations improve the lives of children in the Hantam community

The Hantam Community Education Trust (the Trust) works in rural communities around Hantam in the Northern Cape. With severely limited access to primary healthcare and a dispensing chemist, the people in these areas previously suffered from ill health and disease. The Trust moved to fill this gap in 2005 by establishing a clinic with a doctor, two nurses and three trained healthworkers, as well as a pharmacy, providing basic healthcare services to approximately 326 adults, 226 children and 17 babies. This project has expanded the clinic’s reach by enabling healthworkers to run an immunisation programme for 44 babies over a period of a year, to prevent the children from getting and spreading common, but potentially life-threatening, childhood illnesses.

Impact

The health clinic is one component of Hantam’s integrated healthcare programme. The clinic is open every Wednesday and services all the schoolchildren, babies and adults from the Hantam community. The clinic is well used; from April to October 2008, it had 339 consultations that specifically treated children and babies for various ailments. During the same period, 31 babies and children received the necessary immunisations, including polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hib, hepatitis B and measles. 63 babies and toddlers, aged 1 to 5, also took part in the clinic’s vitamin A campaign.

Effective Parenting workshops were held in June and September 2008, with 20 mothers attending the first workshop and 30 mothers attending the second. The outcomes from the workshops included the following:

• The mothers gained knowledge about their bodies and how the female body works – this inspired them and empowered them to take charge of their lives.
• Women were confronted with the fact that a drunken mother cannot feed her children or be a role model.
• A group of husbands and wives volunteered to visit homes in the community to talk about the importance of male role models in families.
• A close bond between the trainers and the mothers and babies was established. The trainers are familiar with their homes and living conditions and know what problems need to be addressed.

Activities

• The project is ongoing and the need for treatment and immunisation is addressed as it arises.

• The clinic facility is available for the community to access every Wednesday.

Expenditure

The cost of the project was R20,316, with all funds having been paid to the Hantam Community Education Trust.

Description	Total Budget	Total Expenditure
Salaries – general workers	220	220
Administration	1 200	1 200
Clinic part-time	1 980	1 980
Insurance	200	200
Printing	136	136
Fundraising	200	200
Telephone	240	240
Postage	80	80
General expenses and rations	280	280
Medicines	13 200	11 336
Bank Charges	160	160
UIF,R.S.C, Workers’ Compensation	74	74
Transport	1 545	1 549
Building and furniture	420	420
TOTAL	20 316	18 075

Challenges

The project has experienced no problems to date. The clinic has operated successfully for the past eight years and Hantam are confident in their dedicated and well-trained staff. The community members are well-informed and are cooperative regarding immunisation.

Monitoring and evaluation

Every week, Hantam receives a full report from the clinic, giving the numbers of patients seen, ailments treated, medications administered, the cost of these medications and the funds contributed by the community for the clinic service.

An Effective Parenting programme provides weekly and monthly reports which detail, amongst other things, the schedule for the immunisation programme and whether immunisations are taking place at the appropriate times.

Conclusion

The Hantam Community Education Trust is very pleased with the continued success of the clinic, the immunisation programme and the Effective Parenting programme, which work together to look after the health of the community.

Vital immunisations protect remote, rural communities

Wed, 10 September 2008

“Thank God for the Clinic. We now do not have to go 40km to town and wait all day in a line. In the end they do not have the medicines we need.”

REPORT 1: Hantam Community Education Trust: Community Immunisation Programme

The Hantam Community Education Trust works in the rural communities around Hantam in the Northern Cape. With severely limited access to primary health care or a dispensing chemist, the people in these areas suffered from ill health and disease. The Trust moved to fill this gap in 2005 by establishing a clinic with a doctor, two nurses and three trained health workers, as well as a pharmacy, providing basic healthcare services to around 326 adults, 226 children and 17 babies. This project is expanding the clinic’s reach by enabling health workers to run a programme to immunise 44 babies over a year to prevent the children from getting and spreading common, but potentially life-threatening, childhood illnesses.

Impact

The Health Clinic is one component of Hantam’s integrated healthcare programme. The clinic services all the school children, babies and adults from the community, every Wednesday. From April through to June 2008, 140 children and 14 babies where treated for various ailments as well as receiving the necessary immunisations including Polio, Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Hib, Hepatitis B and Measles.

• The project is ongoing and the need for treatment and immunization is addressed as it arises.
• The clinic facility is available for the community to access every Wednesday.

Expenditure

The cost of the project is R22,050 with R6,600 still to be paid.

Description	Total Budget	Expenditure - Tranche 1
Salaries - general workers	220	220
Administration	1200	1200
Clinic part time	1980	1980
Insurance	200	200
Printing	136	136
Fundraising	200	200
Telephone	240	240
Postage	80	80
General expenses and rations	280	280
Medicines	13 200	6 600
Bank Charges	160	160
UIF ,R.S.C, Work comp	74	74
Transport	1 545	1 549
Building and Furniture	420	420
Total	20 316	13 716

Challenges

The project has experienced no problems yet. The clinic has operated successfully for the past 8 years and Hantam are confident in their dedicated and well-trained staff.

Monitoring and evaluation

Every week, Hantam receives a full report from the clinic giving the numbers of patients seen, the ailments treated, medications that were administered, the cost of these medications and the funds contributed by the community for the clinic service.

An Effective Parenting Programme provides weekly and monthly reports which detail, amongst other things, the scheduled planned immunisation programme and whether immunisations are taking place at the appropriate time.

Conclusions

The weekly report gives us a clear indication of what is happening to the health of the community. The EPP trainers make sure through their weekly contact with the parents enable them to monitor their parenting and heath development of the babies. We have a Health programme facilitator who gathers in all the information and reports back to the project co-ordinator. We are very pleased with the continued success of the both the clinic and the EPP which go well and in hand.