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Care 4 Soweto is a partnership of Suncoast Hospice with the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa supporting the important work of the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand and Soweto Hospice.

Our purpose is simple – To provide care, aid and support to the Soweto community - ravaged by endemic disease. The people of Soweto and surrounding Jo-burg, are making valiant strides in caring for those patients and their families who are battling terminal illness, and also helping with some of the most basic of needs: food, housing, and care for the children.

Please consider participating in this effort and donate to the important work of the Soweto Hospice and their many programs for the people of Soweto. It only takes a minute.

Follow this blog, and follow our ongoing commitment to our friends in Soweto. Please pass along the address for this site, to your friends and family as well. Thank you for your support, and we encourage you join our partnership.

Living in two worlds

I sit at my desk at home, writing this reflection.  It has been just about 24 hours since we touched down in Tampa.  It’s hard to believe that the two weeks with our sister hospice is over.  My heart and mind are struggling to ‘right’ themselves. My heart is joyful to be back home with my family and is full of the love for my African brothers and sisters. My mind is adjusting to the reality of being home- going through mail, emails, paying bills, etc and I continue to think about my African colleagues- wondering what they’re doing now and how this or that patient is. The reality, though, is that this trip is not really over.  It’s true that we’re no longer in South Africa, spending our days face to face with our African colleagues.  What is equally true is that today is just another day in the continuing and ongoing relationship with our sister hospice.  In 2000 our partnership began and today, May 18, 2009 is the beginning of the next phase of our relationship.  Today, alone, I have received two new emails from African colleagues and I noticed that I had received several emails from other colleagues while in South Africa.  I am so proud of the work that happens every day in Johannesburg and Soweto.  Great things happen each and every day.  We’ll be writing more about this great work during the coming weeks.  There are many stories yet to tell.  Please keep reading our blog.  There will be new postings frequently. Our South African colleagues are also joining our blog and will be sharing their stories.  And, as always, there is more work to do.  Your continued financial support will assist our sister hospice in doing its daily work. 

Keep in mind: Life in its passing is a sacred thing, never to be repeated. Let not a day pass in which we do not honor life's mystery or behold its wonder in our hearts.

Try to imagine...

Dear Friends,

Imagine caring for an extremely ill patient who has full-blown AIDS and will die within the next few weeks. His wife, two of his children and other immediate family members already have died of AIDS. When he dies, his mother will be left to care for his remaining three children, two of whom are HIV positive. Countless other patients you’ve cared for also have died of this devastating disease within the month.

You live in Soweto, South Africa, where more than 1,300 people die each week, overwhelmingly from HIV/AIDS. The number is so staggering that I have to say it again – more than 1,300 people die each week in this poverty and HIV/AIDS-stricken region of the world.

You are a hospice nurse, or sister as called in South Africa, at The Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand. You rely on your hospice to provide a vehicle and gas so that you can drive to visit your patients. You’ve already been held up at gunpoint once and had a previous vehicle stolen. You are frequently threatened in some neighborhoods. You must be especially careful when transporting medications.

Or you could be a cook who serves warm meals daily to the adult day care patients. You know these patients, all of whom are HIV positive. You know they rely on the food you so lovingly prepare for them. It is often the only hot meal they get that day. It’s not unusual for you to slip a little extra food on the tray when a mother is in the unit visiting her child.

You also may be one of the other workers who keep the Soweto hospice running such as a community care worker (home health aide), social worker or administrator. Even through the dire economic times and violent unrest, somehow you get up, go to work and make sure the community is well taken care of.

Staffers from our hospice, The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, have seen this mission in action during the exchange trips to our sister hospice. And they’ve seen the humanity of those who are overworked and underpaid, caring for a multitude of patients and families including the orphans left behind, because it is the right thing to do.

This year will be my second trip to our sister hospice as part of The Hospice African Exchange trip. I will lead six others on our 8,900-mile journey and two-week stay – an emotional and life-changing experience indeed. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing and learning from the workers, whose caseloads are many and hearts are ablaze. There are so many stories to tell of lessons learned, tears shed and laughter exchanged.

Sadly, our sister hospice is struggling to make ends meet and continue the care that the community so desperately needs. And, so, we are asking you – our fellow hospice communities – to reach out and support our sister hospice. Your dollars will go so far there, helping to pay for numerous medications, food and clothing for their patients and workers’ salaries.

Please consider making a donation on our blog site at www.Care4Soweto.org. On behalf of previous exchange groups, this year’s group and everyone who supports our partnership, we thank you greatly for your support in helping our sister hospice to continue its care mission.

Sincerely,

Stacy Orloff

The Need - You Can Help

The Soweto Hospice provides much needed food parcels and Inpatient beds for adults and children, and adult and child daycare. Your donation will go directly to improve the conditions of the people in Soweto.

South African Costs in US Dollars

• Doctor -------------------------- US $ 1,494. per month
• Professional Nurse -------------- US $ 982. per month
• Auxiliary Nurse ----------------- US$ 370. per month
• Community Care Worker --------US $ 135. per month
• Cook ---------------------------- US $ 211. per month
• Social Worker ------------------- US $ 498. per month
• Vehicle for the Home Visits ------ US $ 588. per month
• Cost of inpatient Bed ------------ US $ 36. per day
• Medication for one patient ------ US$ 9. per month
• Home care ---------------------- US$ 4. per visit
• Day Care Center (HIV+ children) US $ 2.50/day/child
• Food parcels --------------------- US $ 6. feeds 4 people/1 wk

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Everyone Can Care 4 Soweto

Care 4 Soweto provides a way for everyone to be connected with the work of the Soweto Hospice and to continue the compassion at work through their donations.

Soweto’s Need Is Great

With over 1300 deaths due to HIV/AIDS every week, the entire community is devastated. The economy is in shambles. The number of orphaned children is enormous. There is no government support for hospice services. This is why Care 4 Soweto is so important. In addition to raising much needed funds for the work of the Soweto Hospice.

The Soweto Hospice cares for 700 patients per day in their homes and in the hospice inpatient unit. Unlike US hospices, the Soweto Hospice is challenged by more than just providing excellent home care to patients.

Soweto Hospice staff also provides orphan care as thousands of children in Soweto are AIDS orphans, many of them infected themselves. The hospice runs a child day care center where more than 150 children who are infected with HIV/AIDS or orphaned by AIDS can come and receive meals, education, spiritual support and physical care. More than 70% of the children in day care are receiving anti-retrovirals for their own AIDS infection.

Soweto Hospice also provides adult day care centers where 30 to 40 patients per day come for a hot meal, socialization, medical and spiritual support.

Since poverty is such an issue in Soweto…more than 60% are unemployed…Soweto Hospice staff provide medical supplies, pain medication and food parcels as they visit families living in shanty towns with no electricity or plumbing.

In 2007, Soweto Hospice opened a 24 bed inpatient unit that houses 16 adults and 8 pediatric children who are too sick to remain at home.

Amidst the challenges of poverty, homelessness, hunger, joblessness, crime and the eradication of two generations of South African blacks, the Soweto Hospice stands as a beacon of hope to those suffering with AIDS and cancer in Soweto. It is the mission of the South African hospice committee at The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, to stand beside our “sister” hospice and to provide whatever we can to lessen their load.

In 2009, a group of volunteers from The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, will self-fund their trip, and journey to South Africa to spend 2 weeks with our partner hospice once again.