A caring lifeline
Amelia Cubasse who is Hiv positive with Arepacho activist Hortencia Ndima. Photo: Joel Chiziane/OxfamAUS
“If this caregiver hadn’t helped me, today I would be dead. I would actually be dead.”
Marta Ernesto Mandlate, 52, lies on a blanket on the floor of the small two-room house she shares with two of her six children and a grandson in the neighbourhood of Fidel Castro, on the outskirts of Xai Xai, Mozambique.
Home-based care gave me back my life … and motivated me to fight for my life and my children’s life.”.
– Amelia Jame Cubassa
Today is not a good day for Marta. Diagnosed with HIV two years ago, she is feeling unwell and finds it difficult to turn from the position where she rests. Her caregiver, Lilita Sitoe from our local partner organisation Arepacho, sits beside her, holding her hand, wiping her forehead with a cool cloth and giving her some water to drink.
While Marta appreciates the care, comfort and support that Lilita provides, it’s the companionship that she values most.
“She visits me every day and sometimes twice a day. I really appreciate this because I am here lying down and I don’t have anyone to talk to,” Marta says, wiping tears from her eyes.
It is the all-consuming isolation and loneliness that comes from living with HIV – and the fear, stigma, discrimination and ignorance that accompany it – that is the real killer.
“A sick person living with HIV needs a lot of company,” Marta’s daughter Arselia Joao Nboane, 22, says, “because the isolation can kill them quicker than the illness”.
Marta is one of 1.8 million Mozambicans who are living with HIV – the epidemic that has swept through Africa, ravaging villages and towns, orphaning millions of children and crippling already vastly under-resourced healthcare systems.
But HIV is not the death sentence that it once was. With regular antiretroviral medication, a nutritious diet and proper care, many people with HIV are able to become healthy again, return to work and live long and positive lives.
Arepacho activist Lilita Sitoe(left) with other activists, washing hands. Photo: Joel Chiziane/OxfamAUS
This is why home-based care, like that provided by our local partners Arepacho and Tinhena, is so vital – it provides practical, life-saving healthcare and support, while also raising vital awareness about HIV and AIDS.
And it is this work, combined with the prevention and education activities that we also support, that will help address the HIV and AIDS crisis in the long-term.
Typically, carers help people access vital antiretroviral medication; provide basic healthcare; dispense medicines; deliver food; provide companionship and psychological and spiritual support; accompany patients to doctor’s check-ups and HIV testing centres; and help with household chores.
As Amelia Jame Cubassa, of Chongoene Sede, says, home-based care “gave me back my life … and motivated me to fight for my life and my children’s life”.
Sitting on a straw mat underneath the shade of a tree, Amelia’s peaceful face belies memories of intense pain when she was weak, bed-ridden and felt too sick to move.
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