Vhonani Netshandama

Development of the Dzimauli Community in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province of South Africa, for the MAL-ED Cohort Study

The Dzimauli community is located in the Vhembe district in the northern part of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The district is bordered by Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north and Mozambique to the East. The study site population is entirely blacks and 53% female, with a mean household size of 6 persons. Through a consultative process, we engaged and prepared the Dzimauli, a community of low socioeconomic status, to participate in a longitudinal, observational study. In addition to contributing to the objectives of The Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) cohort study, we established a high degree of public trust and understanding of scientific research within the community and its leaders. This has resulted in creating an entirely new site suitable for potential future field-based intervention studies based on an improved understanding of the factors influencing child health in this community.

Self-reported impact of caregiving on voluntary home-based caregivers in Mutale Municipality, South Africa.

Background The establishment of home-based care (HBC) programmes in developing countries has resulted in a shift of burden from hospitals to communities where palliative care is provided by voluntary home-based caregivers. Aim The study investigated the impact of caregiving on voluntary home-based caregivers. Setting The study was conducted at HBC organisations located in Mutale Municipality of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Methods A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive survey design was applied to investigate the impact of caregiving on voluntary home-based caregivers. The sample was comprised of (N = 190) home-based caregivers. Home-based caregivers provide care to people in need of care in their homes, such as orphans, the elderly and those suffering from chronic illnesses such as tuberculosis, HIV and/or AIDS, cancer and stroke. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data which were analysed descriptively using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software, Version 20. Results The results showed that 101 (53.2%) participants were worried about their financial security because they were not registered as workers, whilst 74 (39.0%) participants were always worried about getting infection from their clients because they often do not have protective equipment. Conclusion Voluntary home-based caregivers have an important role in the provision of palliative care to people in their own homes, and therefore, the negative caregiving impact on the lives of caregivers may compromise the provision of quality palliative care.

Voluntary Home-Based Caregivers’ Perceived Needs for Support: A Study in the Mutale Municipality in South Africa

Abstract Voluntary home-based caregivers have become the backbone of home-based care programmes in Southern Africa where the public health care system is under severe strain. In this paper, a cross-sectional descriptive design was used to investigate home-based caregivers’ perceptions of their need for support. A total of 77 randomly selected home-based caregivers were recruited. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data, which was analysed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that 47 (61%) of the participants agreed that they were trained as home-based caregivers, whereas 62 (80.5%) indicated that they were not satisfied with the training they received. The results showed that 56 (72.7%) of voluntary home-based caregivers did not know where to get help when they felt stressed, whilst 39 (50.6%) voluntary home-based caregivers indicated that they get emotional support from their colleagues. Voluntary home-based caregivers are playing a critical role in providing care to people in their homes in rural areas and therefore it is essential that all stakeholders should participate in addressing their needs.

Policy Leadership, School Improvement and Staff Development in England, Tanzania and South Africa: Schools Working Together

Research was carried out in three discrete regions in England and Africa into the benefits of school principals sharing issues with at least one other leader from another school. Different forms of this inter-school collaboration operated in Birmingham, England, Limpopo province of South Africa and Mtawra province of Tanzania. These ranged from a formally structured model to meeting an informal desire by leaders to gain from others’ expertise. Interviews were carried out with the leaders and with connected stakeholders, as well as relevant documents being analysed. In all cases, the data showed that school leaders were hugely in favour of collaborating with other leaders so that there could be mutual learning, regardless of the previous status of the schools. The key factors in the success of such collaborations were seen to be professional trust between the participants and the facilitation of the process by a third party.

An improved model for provision of rural community-based health rehabilitation services in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province of South Africa

Background In 1991, Riakona Community Rehabilitation Programme initiated community-based rehabilitation (CBR) in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. Subsequently, the South African government adopted the programme. Aim The aim of the study was to suggest an improvement in the model of providing CBR services. Setting The study was conducted in six rehabilitation centres located in hospitals in the Vhembe District in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Method A mixed-mode research design with qualitative and quantitative elements was used to conduct the study. Content analysis, the chi-square test for Goodness of Fit and the Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney non-parametric tests were conducted. Results The key determinants of client satisfaction with the services that the community rehabilitation workers rendered included provision of assistive devices and the adoption of a holistic approach to their work. Overall, satisfaction per domain for each one of the five domains of satisfaction scored less than 90%. More than 80% of clients were satisfied with empathy (83%) and assurance (80%) domains. Tangibles, reliability and responsiveness domains had scores of 78%, 72% and 67%, respectively. These results, together with the reasoning map of conceptual framework description, were used as the building blocks of the CBR model. Conclusion The improved CBR model is useful for putting the programme into practice. This is particularly so for the CBR managers in the districts of the Limpopo Province.

Sustainability of Women-Owned Construction Enterprises in South Africa: ‘A Burning Issue’

The dawn of democracy in South Africa brought recognition of building skills in the market as having an impact on the broader economic growth of the country. As expected, this recognition introduced the need for the transformation and regulation of the construction industry in order to enable greater participation by historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs). Furthermore, these efforts saw an influx of women who established their own construction enterprises, hoping that they too could contribute meaningfully to the economic development of the country.