ThembaCare Grabouw provides a 7-bed hospice in-patient facility for adults who are terminally ill and whose lives have been devastated by HIV/AIDS and TB. It is the only overnight medical care in the town. To complement the in-patient facility ThembaCare also has a team of community care workers who visit various discharged patients and other referrals in their homes every morning.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

See our latest updates on the new Thembalitsha Foundation blog!

Thank you for being a loyal supporter and friend of ThembaCare Grabouw and Thembalitsha Foundation! We have recently streamlined all of our blogs into a single website for all of the projects so you can keep up with all things Thembalitsha in one place: thembalitsha.blogspot.com. If you are interested in following our new combined stream, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your up-to-date e-mail address in the "Follow By E-mail" field. And if you still want to view project-specific content, you can choose a project from the drop-down menu at the top! All of our old posts from this blog have also migrated there as well in a full archives.

We hope that this new platform will be incredibly easy for you to use and also show you the full scope of the exciting happenings here at Thembalitsha! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at any time - we love hearing from our supporters.

We look forward to sharing more of this journey with you!

xx
Team Themba

Friday, February 13, 2015

THEMBACARE GRABOUW: Hit the ground running in 2015!

ThembaCare Grabouw hit the ground running at the start of 2015 – all the departments were quite busy from the start of the New Year. The first quarter of every year is always busy, and TCG is bracing itself for a busy quarter in all projects!

We began the New Year at ThembaCare by waving an emotional goodbye to Tim and Maz, who had been the project managers at the Village of Hope for the last several years. We will miss the great impact they have made on the Grabouw community! We also shared the pleasure of meeting all the staff and volunteers of Thembalitsha at the interactive 2015 Staff Kick-Off at Paul Cluver Wine Estates.

Back in our unit, we have been making more improvements by revamping the in-patient sluice room and completing the kitchen used by our Home-Based Carers. Our staff also devoted some of their time to attending the Department of Health’s Compulsory 2015/2016 Funding & Briefing Meeting.



In-Patient Unit
Bed occupancy was 98% full during December 2014 and January 2015, which is unusual around this time as most patients normally migrate to the Eastern Cape to spend the Christmas and New Year with their families. Even with so much going on, we are delighted to report that we have successfully rehabilitated two patients during this holiday season!


Home Based Care:
Our dedicated team of caregivers supported a total of 357 patients who are living with HIV or TB during December and January. 16 of our carers were able to brush up their skills by attending the M Learning Child Health training facilitated by the Elgin Learning Foundation.

The carers also participated in the Department of Health’s Diarrhoea Campaign in the community – a collaboration between several non-profit organizations in Grabouw aimed at decreasing the deaths caused from diarrhoea-related dehydration which is particularluy prominent in the summer months due to the heat. By providing guidance, education, and practical solutions to stay hydrated, the campaign saw immediate results: whereas there had been several deaths caused by diarrheoa before Christmas in 2013, there had been zero deaths at the meeting just before Christmas in 2014. The campaign has been a victory for all the healthcare providers in our community so far.

HIV Counselling & Testing Unit:

The HCTU was able to mobilize the Caravan for assisting the Department of Health’s Vitamin A Campaign in the community. Our counsellors were on hand to provide guidance and smart nutrition tips for keeping healthy. The Mobile Unit also reached 187 clients with HIV testing and counselling in the past two months, and screened 182 clients for TB in the community. From this, 13 clients were referred to the Grabouw Day Hospital to commence TB treatment.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

December 2014














One cannot believe that 2014 is almost over and what a year it has been!!
As the year draws to an end, it is impossible to not be able to reflect on all the activities that have happened at ThembaCare Grabouw; and to reflect on all the much needed care & support that has been offered to all our HIV, TB, Cancer & terminally ill patients and their families through our In Patient & Home Based Care Units. Ensuring that a patient was "pain free" or died with dignity, love & care and was able to access medical & nursing care, was a special privilege!! Being able to continue to provide HIV & TB health education and awareness through the HIV Counselling team in the community, schools and surrounding farms was invaluable, so that patients could make informed life choices & decisions!!

In the midst of caring for our patients, our Care staff have been quite busy attending training sessions that were facilitated by the Department of Health through the Elgin Learning Foundation and 7 of our Angels completed their Home Based Care EPWP Level 1 & 2 training this year. Another 5 members of staff are also currently attending their EPWP Level 1 training and also attending Child Health training sessions as well. The Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), provided our staff with training on Patient Data Capturing Skills too. It has been a whole lot of training, but quite valuable as it ensures that our staff are up to date with their skills and can provide our HIV & TB patients with better Palliative Care support and follow up in the hospice facility & community as a whole!!

ThembaCare Grabouw is sincerely grateful to all our Funders & supporting partners who have in various ways ensured that the work that we do in the community of Grabouw continues and that we are enabled to "Offer Hope", where it has been needed!!
Thus, as we celebrate World Aids Day during this December, ThembaCare continues to be in the forefront of partnering with the Department of Health and other Health organistions in assisting to "Turn the Tide Against HIV/AIDS & TB" in the community of Grabouw!!

We wish all our Funders, Supporters & Partners a blessed Christmas this December and hope that you will continue to partner with us in 2015!!



Monday, October 20, 2014

October News















After the riots in Grabouw have died down its been work as usual at ThembaCare Grabouw. Many thanks for some much needed patient pyjamas that were donated by Elgin Free Range Chickens and the delivery of a cheque from the Elgin Gentlemen's Associated which they raised from their annual barn dance!! Thank you for supporting the palliative care work that we do at ThembaCare Grabouw!! This month we were also thanking some of our staff for having worked 5 years at ThembaCare and for their hard work & care, loyalty and diligence.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

August News


Busy as bees has been the buzz word at ThembaCare Grabouw. The building of the new sluice room began in earnest and while all this has been happening in the last few weeks, there have been local schools and visitors coming to see the Palliative Care work that Thembacare Grabouw is offering in the community of Grabouw. And in the midst of all this the caring of our patients carries on!!

Also, we've been on TV. TBN's Watchman on The Wall programme did a special programme for Women's Month and featured our very own Lindi! It was a fantastic programme, over 20 minutes long and we are very grateful for the exposure of the essential work we do for the community.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

June News


ThembaCare Grabouw participated this last month in the Hospice week by acknowledging our hardworking nurses for whom Palliative Care Nursing is not only a job but a passion.

Our nurses were awarded with Palliative Care badges from the Hospice Association of South Africa (HPCA) as a way of the HPCA expressing their gratitude for the work our nurses do in caring for our patients in the community of Grabouw.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

March News

The Adventurers

Last week we were very excited to receive our long-awaited new generator. This generator was bought with the funds that were raised from the Cycle To The Sea biking challenge that took place last year and we are extremely thankful to all the people who took part! A generator means that we will never be without electricity and enables us to continue our high level of care for our patients regardless of what it going on with the grid. Quite recently we’ve had a number of power cuts so this is going to come in very handy.

Our in-patients have also been treated to a visit from the ‘Adventurers’ youth group who came to sing for them as well as visits from German volunteer, Gundi, who is staying at Village of Hope but comes to do craft with the in-patients every Wednesday.

Next week, on 24th March we will be joining forces with the local clinic to screen the community for TB on World TB day. Grabouw has the highest rate of TB deaths in its municipality and it’s a curable disease, so this is a very important virus for us to tackle.