In 2018, Hlokomela – meaning “to care” in Sepedi – stood at a crossroads. The award-winning HIV and AIDS education and treatment programme, based in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, was on the brink of closure due to funding shortages. After years of dedicated service to thousands of farmworkers and vulnerable communities, founder and director, Christine du Preez, was preparing to shut the clinic’s doors.
“I told Discovery we couldn’t continue. We had no funds to pay salaries, and people were at risk of losing access to healthcare. That’s when it became clear that the Discovery Fund isn’t simply a funder to us, they also provided mentorship, skills, training, and other long-term support,” Du Preez recalls.
Realising the need for Hlokomela to remain in service of the community, the Discovery Fund stepped in to provide not only additional funding but also commissioned a pilot study, and collaborated with the team, to introduce an innovative funding model called a partial payment system (PPS), which has three approaches, namely the:
- Hlokomela Employers’ Health Club (HEHC), which offers employers the unique opportunity to access Hlokomela’s services at a discounted rate by becoming part of the HEHC through a monthly subscription fee.
- Hlokomela Health Cards, which for a once-off fee of R900 per year, allows the card owner access to most Hlokomela services and discounted rates on other more specialised health services for an entire year.
- Walk-in clients who are not part of the HEHC or do not have a Hlokomela Health Card, are welcome to access services at affordable rates.
Focusing on health and social care programmes with interventions to reduce HIV, TB and STIs, Hlokomela also developed additional sources of funding, such as growing and selling fresh herbs, herb products, vegetables and dried fruit in the Hoedspruit area. The addition of two properties for the Gracious Living Retirement Haven also provides rental income for the organisation.
These interventions didn’t just save Hlokomela, it strengthened it. This cost-sharing approach ensures access to quality healthcare, while reinforcing the value of healthy, supported workforces.
The partnership between Hlokomela and Discovery Fund once again proved to be lifesaving when COVID-19 struck two years later. By then, Hlokomela had become a vital healthcare provider in Limpopo’s Mopani District, administering nearly 30,000 COVID-19 vaccinations to farmworkers, migrants, and community members – many of whom would have been excluded from national rollouts of the vaccination.
“If we had closed in 2018, what would have happened during the pandemic?” Du Preez wonders. “Discovery didn’t just keep us going – they kept our community alive.”
From humble beginnings to national recognition
After moving to Hoedspruit, Du Preez initially started out by offering primary healthcare services on farms. Founded in 2005 in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, she began Hlokomela with just four employees and 50 patients living with HIV. Today, it stands as a nationally recognised model of community-based healthcare, with:
- 74 staff members
- 72 community health workers known as Nompilos (“mothers of life” in isiZulu)
- Four fixed clinics
- Over 60,000 people reached every year.
Services have also expanded to include HIV education and treatment, cancer screening, maternal and child health, trauma support, and mobile outreach to remote farming communities.
With a desire to help others from a young age, Du Preez wanted to be a social worker but decided to become a nurse. She was raised in a medical household – her father a doctor and her mother a nurse – and was inspired by her father’s example of treating patients in his home surgery. “We didn’t see colour – we just helped people,” she says. That ethos became the foundation of Hlokomela, which now serves farmworkers, migrants who do seasonal farm work, sex workers, and lodge employees across the region.
Addressing a crisis
In 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people were living with HIV globally – over 63% in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa alone had 5.54 million cases, with 18.8% of adults affected.
A 2008 study in Hoedspruit revealed a severe HIV epidemic among farmworkers, with a 29% infection rate – significantly higher than that of Limpopo’s general population. Young, unmarried women and those living off-site were especially vulnerable. Alarmingly, 60% of all employees and 53% of HIV-positive individuals didn’t know their status, and many reported never using condoms.
Today, South Africa has 8 million people living with HIV, with 6.2 million receiving treatment – a testament to the impact of organisations like Hlokomela. Between 2008 and 2018, HIV prevalence among farmworkers in Hoedspruit dropped from 29% to 6.3%, due in part to Hlokomela’s peer education and prevention programmes and the valuable work of Nompilos in the community.
A partnership rooted in purpose
Hlokomela’s vision is to create a culture of caring that empowers everyone, especially for marginalised groups, and every person at the organisation advocates for dignity and respect in healthcare.
“Partnering with Hlokomela just made complete sense,” says Andronica Mabuya, Head of Group CSI at Discovery. “Our purpose is to make people healthier and enhance and protect lives. Hlokomela is not just a health initiative – it’s a movement. It’s a model that has shown great success and one that deserves to be scaled, replicated, and celebrated.”
The Discovery Fund, a cornerstone of Discovery’s Corporate Social Investment, has supported over 21 organisations in the 2024 financial year, including four with a focus on HIV/AIDS prevention and care. In 2024 alone, the Discovery Fund invested R28 million in expanding access to healthcare.
Voices from the frontline
Du Preez has created a culture where dignity and respect are given to all patients, regardless of their background. She says, also among those involved in delivering their programmes, she could see the positive effect of having a purpose.
“Hlokomela is very important for farmworkers and farmers,” says Mpho Doris, a Nompilo at Hlokomela. “Many are still alive because of it. I’ve seen the change since 2005. People trust me more. They’re more open. I’m not educated, but maybe God gave me a job to do.”
Doris began her journey with Programme Manager Antoinette Ngwenya in 2005. “It was hard to educate farmworkers about HIV. People were dying. Limpopo only got ARVs in 20010.”
She recalls the resistance: “Men refused condoms. They said, ‘We want children.’ But we kept educating, encouraging testing, and promoting healthy living.”