Red Cross Blogs

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There is no line between laughter and tears in Mnyamezeli Mbongwa’s house. A 68-year-old grandmother, you wouldn’t know it to look at her as she moves with a joyful energy.
 
And the camera loves her. She has the strong features you might find in carved ebony. Her household is large and encompasses more than its fair share of tragedy, yet it is also one of the most laughter-filled homes you could hope to encounter.

In a large round room with a mud floor she bustles around tidying up and tending to Asiphe, her 13-year-old disabled grandson who lies on a mat on the floor. There is no sofa in this home, just a hard wooden bench.

Orphans of HIV

Mnyamezeli pauses for a moment, gathers her skirts and sits down to answer a question.

“I was young when I got married, I was 16,” she says. “I have three children, but one of my daughters died from TB. Later I realised she’d had HIV. She left three children who my husband and I now look after – my granddaughter Thozama who is 20 and has a disability, and my two grandsons, 16-year-old Siphosihle who is healthy, and Asiphe who is severely disabled and was born with HIV.”

Mnyamezeli gestures to a young woman sitting in the room breastfeeding her child and says: “We also have another grandchild, by my daughter who lives with us.”

Thembakhazi, South African Red Cross programme officer, is visiting the household today along with a couple of volunteers. They chat away with Mnyamezeli, coo over the baby and ask after Thozama who is doing the washing up.

Taking HIV medication

It’s time for Asiphe to take his anti-retroviral pills and his grandfather Nomzamo, picks him up and puts him in a small chair that the neighbour has brought in.
 
Asiphe struggles to swallow the pills, which are big and he chokes. His grandmother rushes to help him as he spits them back out. Thembakhasi shows Mnyamezeli how to break open the pill and mix the powder with some water so it’s easier for him to swallow.

Mnyamezeli continues to chat and laugh with everyone, though the tears are also falling down her cheeks.

A little while later, Asiphe begins to vomit. The volunteers rush to help care for him and clean him up. He is very agitated and Thembakhasi helps calm him down.

She then explains that they need to make sure he takes the medication and they have to try again. The volunteers help Asiphe have a drink and his grandmother jokes: “Yes, you have to keep them busy Asiphe.”

Everybody helps

After he’s successfully taken his medication, Asiphe’s grandfather carries him back to the mat on the floor. Everyone helps out. The neighbour comes back in and mops the floor. And although Thozama, Asiphe’s older sister, can’t walk well it doesn’t stop her rushing to bring him a pillow and another blanket.

Mnyamezeli offers the Red Cross workers a drink. They say thank you but they’re not thirsty and Mnyamezeli cracks another joke about them not wanting to drink after seeing Asiphe vomit.

It’s time for the Red Cross volunteers to move on and visit another family, but the photographer can’t resist taking one more photo of Mnyamezeli, which results in another peal of laughter as her husband says: “I think he likes my wife a bit too much, perhaps she wants to go with him!”

The visit lasted less than two hours, but it was a privilege to observe this masterclass on living with absolute love and humanity.

Read more stories about HIV affecting people in South Africa

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Tags: AIDS, HIV, South Africa

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Guest post by Flora Watters.

Every year, people celebrate International Women’s Day in wildly different ways: some organise a meal with friends; others rally thousands together for a cause. On the first International Women’s Day 101 years ago there were rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland campaigning for women’s rights to education, the vote, and to equal pay.

However you celebrate this International Women’s Day, it’s important to reflect on which issues of inequality still remain – especially in developing nations where women’s human rights may not be adequately protected by the law.

Shadows of hope
For this year’s International Women’s Day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is focusing on women who have lost relatives during armed conflict and are now taking their fate into their own hands. In Nepal over 1,400 people – mostly men – are still missing following 10 years of unrest.

In this video Sylvie Thoral, who heads the ICRC delegation in Nepal, explains how wives or mothers who have had to take on the “man’s” role are coping:

Empowerment after emergencies
After the Red Cross responds to a disaster, we work with recovering communities to help them prepare more efficiently for future emergencies. Often this means empowering the most disenfranchised members of the community – which in many places is still women.

Following the deaths of many women and their children during Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, it became clear that women needed to be better informed about what to do in a disaster.

“Women will not go outside even when they receive information that a cyclone is coming unless their husband tells them to, and women can’t swim because they have not been allowed to learn,” said Nazma, who has benefited from Bangladesh Red Crescent community schemes.

Over five years the Bangladesh Red Crescent worked with religious leaders to change attitudes to unaccompanied women, and trained women’s groups on how to take action during a cyclone.

The civil war in Sierra Leone left many people without skills and struggling to survive. Women who lost family and husbands often turned to sex work to support themselves.

“I was so young I can’t remember my age,” remembers Helen. “My parents were killed and I was taken away and gang-raped. The men who took me threatened to kill me if I left and forced me to carry a gun. This went on for three years.”

However, by working with a Red Cross rehabilitation centre, Helen was able to change her path and begin to deal with the traumas she had experienced. Now she has gained a tailoring apprenticeship and hopes to one day lead an independent life.

A history of equality
When Henry Durant founded the Red Cross during the 1860s he was named his inspiration as nurse Florence Nightingale.

Durant said: “Though I am known as the founder of the Red Cross and the originator of the Convention of Geneva, it is to an English woman that all the honour of that convention is due. What inspired me to go to Italy during the war of 1859 was the work of Miss Florence Nightingale in the Crimea.”

On International Women’s Day, we are proud of our history of empowering women in the UK, and of our continuing commitment to do so in countries where equality is not a given.

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Tags: Bangladesh, florence nightingale, International Committee, International Women's Day, Sidr, Sierra Leone, women

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In Patricia Miya’s house, four young children sit on the floor eating their breakfast and two others have already been packed off to school.

It is an everyday family scene maybe not so different from yours, apart from the lack of furniture. That is until you find out all six children are orphans. They are Patricia’s grandchildren and she’s been looking after them since their parents died of HIV-related illnesses.

For Patricia her worries for the future of her grandchildren have been made worse as two have already been diagnosed with HIV and two with TB. Unfortunately, this story is all too common in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, where one in seven people aged two and over are living with HIV* .

Treatment for HIV and TB

Patricia and her six grandchildren might live in a village of mud huts, but one of the quirks of globalisation means no matter how poor you are, the chances are you will still have a mobile phone. At 7 am, Patricia’s mobile alarm goes off – although she has already been up for a couple of hours.

However, the alarm is a reminder to give Nduduzo, four, and Ntokozo, two, their anti-retroviral treatment. Later, she gives Onele, four, and Thandokazi, one, their TB treatment. Although life for Patricia is tough, she does not complain. Rather she is thankful for the support she receives from friends in her community, including the Red Cross volunteers.

“I can’t even count how many times the volunteers come to visit because they are always coming to visit me,” she says. “I’m very happy for their help as they even taught me how to take care of the kids, demonstrating how to give the pills when they first started taking their treatment for HIV and TB. They supported me until I knew what to do.”

Dedicated volunteers provide lifeline

Across KwaZulu-Natal, the Red Cross has 1,300 dedicated volunteers who provide a lifeline to people in their community. They help out in the home and give advice on nutrition and establishing food gardens which can also help generate income.

Some people, like Patricia, are unable to read and write and have no idea how to access social welfare support – so this is also something the volunteers help with.

“Even the government grant I have is because of the Red Cross, as I didn’t know where to start applying for it,” Patricia says. “They also help me collect the children’s medication and bring us a large food parcel every few months.”

HIV pandemic

Every day in South Africa, Red Cross volunteers are helping thousands of people who face enormous challenges from the effect of the HIV pandemic. It’s not just those living with the disease who struggle, but also the family members who look after them and the children who are left behind when parents die.
“It was hard at first, having so many young children to care for on my own, but now I’m used to it,” Patricia says.

Patricia is 56 years old and with life expectancy for women in South Africa being 55 years**,  she is not being dramatic when she says: “I’m worried about when I die who will take care of the young ones.”

Red Cross support

Visit our website and find out more about how the Red Cross is:

• reducing stigma and discrimination
• preventing further HIV and TB infections
• expanding and improving the quality of our care, treatment and support for people living with HIV.

*South African National HIV survey 2008

**World Health Organisation

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Tags: AIDS, HIV, orphans, Red Cross volunteers, South Africa

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Christmas: pressies, puddings, arguments over the telly, young kids squawking and grandparents sat snoozing in the corner.

It’s a familiar enough scene, but sometimes it can actually be a struggle for older relatives to make the big family occasions, particularly if they are infirm and need to travel some distance to get there.

That’s why the Red Cross’ medical equipment service always finds itself in high demand during the festive season. Our volunteers have large stocks of wheelchairs, walking frames and other mobility aids that can be loaned out for short periods of time.

At Christmas time, with thousands of older relatives (of varying degrees of mobility) whizzing round the country on trains and coaches, our service becomes even more invaluable than usual – especially if the weather turns bad.

So, for example, if granny uses a stick and has a 50-mile train journey to reach her son’s town, the Red Cross can ensure her family will be waiting at the station with a handy wheelchair to ensure a comfortable and safe holiday. At such times, having – literally – the extra support of a chair or walking frame can make a huge difference.

If you’d like more information, just get in touch with your local Red Cross branch office. Equipment can usually be available within 24 hours in an emergency and is loaned absolutely free of charge (though with a refundable deposit).

Obviously, we also welcome donations – but if you hire some equipment for the festive season you’ll no doubt be in a giving mood anyway. Ho, ho, ho, indeed.

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Tags: medical equipment, medical loan, volunteers, wheelchair

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In these days of bleak weather, rubbish recessions and impending financial crises, I think we all deserve a nice story that will make us go ‘Awww’.

So try this for size: a Welsh couple recently celebrated 60 – yes, that’s 60 – years of contented marriage by asking all their friends to give donations to the Red Cross instead of buying them presents. Other than throwing a cute puppy into the mix, how could you make that story any sweeter?

The couple – Mary Davies (85) and her husband Dilwyn (84), from Carmarthenshire – are especially happy because for a long while it looked like they wouldn’t see their landmark diamond anniversary together.

Two years ago, Mary was so ill she needed emergency surgery and ten weeks in hospital. Eventually, doctors sent her home and warned the family to expect the worst. At this point the Red Cross’ continuing care service, which cares for people in their own homes at the end of their lives, stepped in.

Mary received three visits a day from the Red Cross (later reduced to one daily visit) for 12 continuous months. Then gradually, and unexpectedly, her condition started to improve – until a few months later she was back to her old self.

Looking back, the pensioner recalled: “The Red Cross carers were so good to me and so understanding. It was very important to have that help at the time – it meant such a lot.”

Mary and Dilwyn never forgot the carers’ kindness, and decided their diamond wedding anniversary would be an ideal time to show their appreciation.

As Mary put it: “There’s no point in us receiving presents – we don’t need anything.  We’d much prefer to give something back to the Red Cross so that others in a similar situation can enjoy the same support we received.”

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Tags: care in the home, Health and social care, home from hospital, homecare

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