This made us to leave our home and stay there

The winter months have seen the Phila Ubomi team in Tsimbini making good use of the knowledge and skills gained from our training

They have also been distributing much-needed baby hats, jumpers and blankets. These were knitted and donated by a group of ladies in Burnley. The mothers of Ntsimibini were overjoyed to receive the warm clothes and “were so excited to see their babies look beautiful”.

Phila Ubomi have been working at the remote village, where the local church welcomed their support because a lot of new members were ill with HIV, diabetes or poor mental health.

Many have no education and it was a challenge for the Phila Ubomi team to break down taboos and myths. It became apparent that it was going to take time to impart the knowledge and skills, which would enable people take care of themselves and their families. Matheson Nteleko, the Phila Ubomi project manager, writes:

“This made us to leave our home and stay there, moving from one location to another on foot so as to educate them and encourage them to visit the clinic for testing”.

Matheson and Thembeka Nteleko’s commitment to caring for their local communities comes at no small cost. Inaccessible locations means being away from their family and they often have to walk long distances over rough ground and up steep slopes.

Having made a breakthrough in the community and linked them with local authority health workers, Matheson and Thembeka returned home to plan the next outreach.

Final words from Matheson, “We did our best and now we are going to leave them to other health workers that we met there. On 16 July we held a meeting with volunteers giving the report of what we did the previous months. We also discussed about what we should do next. The ladies are to go to do door to door visiting in August in the next village, which is not far from Ntlaza in Mafini location. I myself is going to Agricultural Co-Operation to ask for vegetables, fertiliser and seedlings (for the community garden)”.