This powerful project was the result of intensive collaboration with community leaders, other stakeholders, and a number of governance structures.
KwaNgwenya is a rural region and village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. An impoverished community of 20 000 residents lives in this remote area, and they are faced with a number of difficulties:
Public transport is a challenge for the community due to limited access resulting from poor, untarred road infrastructure.
High unemployment rates and the lack of adequate social infrastructures such as clinics, schools pose other significant challenges.
In addition, access to water is a major factor, with residents relying on the local municipality for delivery of water by truck, which is random and unreliable. When the trucks do arrive, the rationed water is transported by residents to their homes, in containers with wheelbarrows.
Before the new Mange Health Post was established, the challenges for local residents were significant, and often life threatening. Until very recently, residents had to travel approximately 50 km (31 mi.) to a neighbouring village, Bethesda, to receive primary healthcare. The existing compromised public transport and road conditions meant that people suffering from chronic illness and other debilitating illnesses like diarrhea and fever, often did not have the strength to seek medical attention, and sometimes died unnecessarily from highly treatable conditions.
A mobile clinic, staffed by a nurse, visited KwaNgwenya on a fortnightly basis, stopping at 4 sites for 2 hours each. It carried minimal equipment and medical supplies. Community members reported that their clinical data could not be collected, and there was no privacy – often patients were required to undress in front of a queue of waiting people. Due to the limited time that the clinic spent at each site, community members in desperate need to be seen by the nurse would start to queue as early at 04:00 a.m.
This combination of challenges faced by the members of KwaNgwenya meant that they had severely limited access to even basic medical care, and the knock-on effects of this could be seen in deaths from sudden illness or injury, pregnancy complications, and poor follow-up attendance rates and management for those patients being treated for chronic conditions such as HIV AIDS and TB.
Following numerous consultations with the community, the Department of Health, and local governance structures, Wild Impact, supported by donor funding, set out to build a clinic on a designated site, once a mobile-clinic stopping point.
The new Mange Health Post, the first step in the development of a fully-fledged clinic, was constructed to serve and provide primary healthcare to the community of KwaNgewenya. The selected site, allocated for this project by the Tribal Authority of KwaNgwenya, was chosen due to accessibility, and its proximity to the main road, which is due to be tarred by the municipality.
The new Mange Health Post is a health resource, consisting of two consultation rooms, five Enviro Loo ablution facilities for patients and staff, and an electric-powered borehole to assist with water supply to the health post. The roof is fitted with water tanks to retrieve rainwater and support sustainable water management. Lastly, the health post is fenced off for safety and security purposes, and to help keep wandering livestock at bay.
Mange Health Post also offers more storage for dispensary medication and equipment needed for proper patient care. The Enviro Loos provide patients and staff alike with a private and hygienic ablution facility. The borehole and piped water connection supplies the facility with clean and safe water to be used for drinking and handwashing – a critically important element of safe medical practice, yet something that is sadly often unavailable at rural clinics and health service posts.
The phase-1 handover of the Mange Health Post to the Department of Health occurred on 20 January 2022, along with the centre’s keys to the Bethesda Hospital, which is the custodian facility for the new post. The centre is now officially open for use. A second celebratory handover is planned with community members and donors to acknowledge this great milestone.
Brighter days lie ahead. No longer will the loved ones of KwaNgwenya residents die of preventable causes. The Mange Health Post will provide the community with the assurance of accessibility to quality healthcare on a regular basis, and will be instrumental to the overall improvement of the entire community’s physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
Wild Impact is a Public Benefit Organisation registered in South Africa. Reg. No.: 930002115