“The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.” Isaiah 14:30
Dr Grace Sangoni Foundation
Defending Dignity
“The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.” Isaiah 14:30
Tel : 0875510827
Email : [email protected]
NPO 016 938 : PBO – 930049781
Doctor Grace Sangoni Memorial Centre (DGSMC) has been operating in the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape since 1999 providing health care services to population of the district and beyond. The vision of the facility is to, “to create a safe environment for our clients and to improve the quality of life.” The vision is realized through the mission of, “providing quality, cost efficient, sustainable services of primary health care to meet the needs of all and function under the policies of the Department of Health and Department of Social Development. The facility has 200 beds that cater for HIV infected and affected people, and offers related services including food security and chronic care services like care management to ensure compliance and adherence to life saving chronic medication like TB & HIV, education and nutritional support. The facility has adequate capacity to care for patients who need intense clinical nursing care, support and rehabilitation and provides relief to both the overstretched private and public systems that are in need of chronic beds in the region.
The facility provides training to caregivers on first aid, home based care and counselling before they are deployed to their communities to identify the problems and assist, with the permission of the local community leaders. The role of the caregivers is to conduct door to door visits; educating the affected families, the patients identified in cleaning, bathing, feeding where necessary. The Doctors supervise the caregivers on rotation, examines the patients identified by the care-givers and depending on the individual needs, the doctor refers them to hospital or to the centre or leaves him to be attended at home. The care givers collect treatment from the clinic or hospital for the chronically ill and ensure treatment compliance. The facility conducts HIV Counselling and Testing, has a day care centre that provides daily activities for people doing recreational, cultural and spiritual activities and handcrafts. The facility serves as crisis centre for HIV/AIDS patients, aged and disabled ,chronically ill as well as HIV/AIDS orphans who need urgent assistance until a foster home or relevant place has been found. The crisis centre has expanded its role that it caters for the general needs of the population that are displaced, abandoned adults. Partnerships have been formed with Walter Sisulu University Faculty of Health Science, Lilitha Nursing College where students are placed in the centre to assist with support groups and broaden their practical knowledge in the health field.
DGSMC will serve all people of the province at large, by supporting articulation of their needs and facilitating implementation of government policies and strategies by caring for them and alleviating poverty.
DGSMC will create a safe environment for our clients and improve the quality of life.
Social mobilization and communication on chronic patients is an important aspect of the expanded DGSMC strategy. The private providers, patients, chronic patients symptomatic and, general population would be made aware and active participants in chronic patients control. We will through our home based care programs make the target communities aware of the signs and symptoms, the transmission and treatment of chronic patients to improve health seeking behaviours. In addition, the community can play an important role in assisting with early detection, effective treatment and follow-up of default cases. Stigma by the community and sometimes providers is a serious problem in the Eastern Cape. This stigma and lack of knowledge leads to chronic patients’ symptomatic not seeking treatment or seeking treatment from providers not trained. In addition, the patient needs to be adequately informed about the importance of treatment compliance to ensure cure and prevent chronic illnesses. We have developed programs to increase public awareness and demand for quality diagnosis and treatment, early chronic case detection and adherence to treatment by patients. All volunteers are trained over six-week orientation on, “how to be a great volunteer, what is outreach, health and safety, peer support (support groups).” The orientation is designed to help volunteers feel confident, familiarize new volunteers with philosophy and policy of DGSMC, and other key information and provide them with information they need to know about DGSMC and the people they be involved with.
DGSMC already has an established outreach program that promotes one-to-one care for a patient in the community which makes it is unique in its offering. The one-on-one patient care is all about giving full attention to the patient, with holistically care of the person and the family at large. The patient receives specialized care. This is an opportunity that provides an opportunity to give back to the community by providing support to the needy as the existing rehabilitation centre has adequate capacity to cater for patients who need intensive clinical nursing care and support during the critical phases of their illness.
Donors: At the justify we had good hearted people thought of his this place and decided to come and share the little that they people have with our people, food groceries and other things. These people came from different provinces at the top our list