OPSEU in South Africa and Malawi: March 19, 2008

Today we visited another South African project funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation – this time located in the heart of Johannesburg and Soweto.

The Big Shoes Foundation (formerly the Children’s Homes Outreach Program – CHOMP) was set up to improve the medical care of orphaned and vulnerable children, especially those affected by HIV/AIDS so that they can grow up to fill big shoes!

“Big Shoes” at the entrance to their offices at
The Memorial Institute for Child’s Health in Johannesburg.

We were hosted by Dr. Michelle Meiring and her amazing staff as they took us on a tour of where they work in Johannesburg and Soweto.

President Smokey Thomas, Assistant Ron Lavigne, with Dr. Meiring
(second from right) and the staff of Big Shoes

The Foundation works in four areas:

The Abandoned Baby Project – where they train police and social workers in the emergency medical care of the abandoned newborn, they provide emergency packs for abandoned newborns and they advocate for the use of Nevirpine for abandoned babies to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.

The Abandoned Baby Kit – complete with a pre-sterilized baby bottle,
blankets, clothes, diapers, etc.

Medical clinics and Outreach - where they provide early infant HIV diagnosis for children’s homes and community based organizations, they do medical reports for adoption and provide pediatric medical services to “high need” children’s homes.

The Pediatric Palliative care program – to provide daily pediatric cover for the Soweto Hospice, perform consultative pediatric palliative care ward rounds in the Johannesburg Academic hospitals and train professionals in pediatric palliative care.

Training – includes training of child and youth care workers form children’s homes in basic child health and HIV and also write a monthly “Dear Doctor” column for the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW).

Dr. Meiring and students in a training session for youth

Regarding adoption, it is interesting to note that adoptions from outside South Africa are mostly from European countries. Canada and the United States have not signed the Hague Convention on Adoptions and so as yet there is no ability to adopt any of these children. We should look at how we can lobby to change this in Canada.

Dr, Meiring took us on a tour of Chris Hani – Baragwanath Hospital on the edge of Soweto. It is the largest hospital in Southern Africa with 3,000 regular beds and many different centres set up on the hospital grounds – including a burn centre, oncology and emergency centres. Built as a military hospital during World War I, it still has that feel of military barracks all lined up next to each other – and it is overflowing with people and needs.

Dr. Meiring shows us the Pediatric Counselling area at Chris Hani –Baragwanath Hospital

Next we drove to the nearby Soweto Hospice – now called “Kwa-Kgomoto after a doctor who was killed in a grave-side robbery. “Kwa-Kgmomoto” means place of comfort.

Dr. Meiring takes OPSEU to the hospice

The Stephen Lewis Foundation funds the palliative care component of Big Shoes and recently gave additional funding to hire a psychologist for their team.

The families who use the Hospice come from very disadvantaged backgrounds. Many children come from single parent families headed mostly by mothers, they have no ID so cannot access government assistance, sometimes their houses have no electricity so they cannot run oxygen machines for their children and they have no stable address, often moving from one rented shack or small home to another. The Big Shoes team are in the process of opening a unit which will operate as a step-down area or multi-empowerment system to help the families get their ID, housing, government assistance, etc. while the children are being cared for in the Hospice.

It was a very moving experience for us to visit the wards where terminally ill children and their mothers were being cared for here. Just the night before, two children had passed away and we felt the pain and sadness ourselves. However, it is a very loving and peaceful hospice and there are many children who have recovered while here despite all odds.

A beautiful butterfly branch was hung up in the corridor of the hospice for those who have passed away.

We came away from the Hospice sad but extremely impressed with the work that the Big Shoes Foundation are doing in improving the medical care of children – especially those affected by HIV/AIDS. I vowed our continuing support for this wonderful doctor, Michelle Meiring, and her team.

We were joined at the Hospice by two sisters from the National Health, Education and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) – Sister Nomthandazo Sikiti, International Officer, and Sister Busiswe Tshabalala, National HIV and AIDS Coordinator and it was great for all of us to meet together with Big Shoes and discuss what we as unions can do to combat HIV AIDS in our communities and workplaces and for NEHAWU to hear how this union educates both their staff and members on the issue.

Brother Thomas with Sister Nomthandazo Sitiki (right)
and Sister Busiswe Tshabalala.

Sister Nomthandazo was born in Soweto at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital and after we said our goodbyes to Dr. Meiring and Big Shoes, the NEHAWU sisters took us on a tour of Soweto. More on that later…