As I write this, the Eastern Cape continues to be in the full throes of Covid-19. On 16 February, Matheson messaged:
"Things not good. People are dying because of this disease... we are busy comforting mourners and burying the deceased. Even now we are on our way to do that. Very busy...This second wave is really dangerous, killing people unknowingly. It has come from the town to our villages now."
Like most people across the world, Covid-19 came as a huge shock to our friends
in the Eastern Cape. At the beginning of their first lockdown, the lack of knowledge
about the virus was deeply concerning.
Memories of the early days of HIV from the 1990s – the lack of effective treatment,
the denial, the stigma, the isolation of those infected with the virus, were an
immediate concern. Families unable to leave their homes could not get the food
they needed. Government help wasn’t reaching the remote areas and people were
going hungry - and still continue to go without food. In January Matheson and his family were also struggling: " It is bad, we are really starving. There is no food at all - no cash to buy fuel."
Phila Ubomi is inundated with community members suffering bereavement, hunger and sickness. The training we have been providing since 2004 has prepared Phila Ubomi volunteers well for Covid-19 and they have been applying all that they have learned about primary health care and health promotion to the current crisis. From the outset they have been working flat out, in spite of the risk to their own health, providing homecare for the sick and distributing foods and provisions to the most needy people in their communities, as well as giving clear information and modelling how to prevent infection through proper use of facemasks, handwashing and social distancing.
Fundelaship transferred efforts to raising
funds for food relief and other essential provisions. Phila Ubomi volunteers worked
closely with church leaders in the communities they serve, to buy and distribute nutritionally balanced food parcels and other essentials.
We have been in close contact with Matheson since February 2020, as Covid-19 started to make its presence felt in Europe, using email, SMS and Facebook. This week he wrote to let us know how some of the funding we sent has been used:
"We distributed the food parcels to the following places Bukwini, Ntlaza, Qumbu and Ntlanjeni. Due to this Covid-19 problem it was not easy for the volunteers to do the door to door visit.
"In January we were busy cleaning and ploughing our vegetable gardens. Fortunately we received a good rainfall and we were busy planting the seeds and seedlings such as cabbages beetroots and onions. Mngcibe produced a good harvest of cabbages, potatoes, beetroot, etc.
Some of the produce was taken by the volunteers and distributed to people living with HIV. The members (of the local church used the vegetables to) made a soup kitchen and the community children were invited to come and enjoy".
