Home Based Care

People, who get ill in a developing country, often do not have access to or cannot afford proper care. In Mutare, the City Link Haarlem-Mutare supports the Home Based Care Project. This project provides free care and support in patients’ homes.

In Mutare, there are fifty ‘caregivers’, 49 women and one man, working for the Mutare Health Department. They visit about 500 patients per week. These patients have no other access to medical care.

Besides lending a helping hand in care and household chores, these caregivers advise patients and their families on general care, nutrition, hygiene and treatment of infections. Moreover, caregivers also offer social and emotional support. Although actual medical care is vital, it is just as important to have a chat with a caregiver or being offered a shoulder to cry on. Many patients live in townships under difficult circumstances in social isolation. Caregivers show that there are still people who care.

Once a week, caregivers discuss their patients with a qualified nurse of the Mutare Health Department, who is responsible for a specific neighbourhood. If a patients’ situation changes or deteriorates, this nurse will make a house call.

The work is very demanding on caregivers. Only very poor or bedridden people qualify for the Home Based Care Project. These people have often suffered seriously and for a long time. Terminal care is, therefore, an important part of the caregiver’s work. Fortunately, there are also patients who recover, owing to medication and care they receive. Many caregivers have done this work for many years. The caregivers continue to do this work thanks to the great gratitude of the people they visit.

Many caregivers are HIV-positive. The Home Based Care Project originated from a ‘People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) – group’ aiding each other. They decided that they could also help and care for other PLWHA in their neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, many of the original PLWHA caregivers became too ill or died, which threatened to discontinue their work. The Mutare Health Department then decided to take over the project and to recruit more people, including HIV-positive volunteers.

The project is no longer solely aimed at PLWHAs. About one third of the people visited by caregivers is HIV-positive, one third has T.B. (often not tested for HIV), and a lot of them are senior citizens. One of the reasons for this diversity is to prevent stigmatising. Unlike earlier days, a visit by a caregiver no longer automatically means that a person is infected with HIV.

Because of severe economic problems in Zimbabwe, there is a shortage of essential means for patient care. In co-operation with other organisations, we try to improve provisions for caregivers and their patients. In order to obtain more resources, it is important to make sure that patient information, deceases and treatment of patients are well documented. This information can help to establish the proper kind of care and medication. That is why the City Link Haarlem-Mutare provides courses for nurses of the Mutare Health Department.
The City Link Haarlem-Mutare works together with the Mutare Health Department in order to support the work of caregivers. Caregivers get instructions and a first-aid certificate and regularly meet, so they can compare notes. Caregivers get work shoes, bags and uniforms, and they receive a compensation for their efforts.

Support Home Based Care

Since 2002, City Link Haarlem-Mutare has been paying small allowances to caregivers. Additionally, meetings, courses and clothing have been funded by the City Link. Funding is made possible by donations of Haarlem citizens to the ‘Health Committee’.

Donations are welcome at 2034743 ING bank account, referring to Health Committee.


A group caregivers active for Home Based Care