Blue Roof Wellness Centre
October 15, 2009
Durban, South Africa
To read about the Blue Roof Wellness Centre, the clinic outside Durban that was founded by Keep A Child Alive South Africa just three years ago to serve the desperately poor and highly HIVaffected local population, it might sound like any other comprehensive and bustling health centre. To understand its impact, though, you’d have to see Patricia’s smile, and taste the delicious beef and bEvery client, every visitor, is welcomed with a hot meal. arley stew that Stephen and Aissatou (SLF Director of Programmes) savoured on a recent visit.
The stew is part of Blue Roof’s philosophy. Every client, every visitor, is welcomed with a hot meal. That bowl symbolizes Blue Roof’s commitment to holistic health care. It means that nutrition is as important as medicine, and emotional warmth is as real and significant as a full belly.
Blue Roof is a terrific symbol — its distinctive building is a former nightclub, and the gaily painted rooms testify to its spirit of optimism. Its free programmes are rapidly growing to meet the needs of a population that is 40 per cent HIV positive. In addition to its voluntary testing, provision of ARVs to 1,150 adults and 30 children, a dietician, adherence counselling with a pharmacist, monthly food parcels for the indigent, addiction support groups, youth peer education and psychosocial counselling, Blue Roof tries to rebuild the shattered sense of community. The shared meals are part of that strategy.
Patricia’s smile is another “secret weapon”. Fifteen years ago, weak and close to death with a plunging CD4 count, Patricia was carried by friends to a hospice. She desperately wanted to live, for the sake of her little daughter (now a university student). After three months in hospital, Patricia turned the corner and went home. She fought through the devastating initial side effects of ARVs and now is a vibrant picture of health and purpose. Her brilliant smile radiates joy of life.
As a home-based care worker for Blue Roof, Patricia is passionate about her work. To watch the tenderness and respect with which she bathes a sick man in his home is to feel her devotion almost through your own skin. Her voice is soft and musical as she encourages him to be patient about the painful ARV side effects, “I’ve been there, done that, bought the T-shirt!” she jokes. “Look at me now. I’m healthy and beautiful!” Trained by the Red Cross, PatriciTo watch the tenderness and respect with which [Patricia] bathes a sick man in his home is to feel her devotion almost through your own skin. a worked first as a Blue Roof volunteer and then was hired as staff. Now she aims for further education so she can become a youth counsellor.
It’s not precisely true that Africa’s women are indomitable. They can certainly be crushed by extraordinarily cruel circumstances. But what Patricia’s generous vitality illuminates for us is the amazing resilience and the almost limitless possibilities of the human spirit, given even a modest helping hand.