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The pathological hatred Trump inspires on the left and the quasi-religious devotion he commands on the right reflect tensions within American democratic culture. File Photo
AIDS

It’s the ‘Donald disease’ that’s making us sick

With the 12 specialised key population clinics in South Africa funded by the US government, and now shuttered, getting treatment at government clinics has been difficult, if not…

  • Tanya Pampalone
  • Mia Malan
11 min read
More than a quarter of South African children under the age of five are chronically malnourished. That’s bad for them, their families and the economy. (Envato)
BREASTFEEDING

Childhood stunting is also stunting South Africa’s economy

More than a quarter of children under the age of five in the country are chronically malnourished

  • David Harrison
8 min read
Twenty years of hard lessons — with a dose of good luck and a lot of persistence — has helped Hlokomela Clinic to prepare for the US funding cuts crisis. (Zano Kunene)
ANOVA HEALTH INSTITUTE

How this Limpopo NGO prepared for Trump’s funding cuts

The Anova Health Institute, which received the lion’s share of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids funding in South Africa, had its support halted in February along with…

  • Zano Kunene
9 min read
Young people understand social media dynamics, peer-to-peer communication and community mobilisation in ways that can be used improve health services. Photo: Bulungula Incubator
ASONWABISA SIPATANA

Rural areas need community health workers — and so does the NHI

‘Nnomakhayas’ understand a community’s values, practices and problems, as well as modern medicine, making them effective carers

  • Sigrid Kite-Banks
Making a difference: Mentor mothers from the non-profit organisation One to One Africa after visiting a household in Luqoqweni village in the Eastern Cape. (Oupa Nkosi)
ANTIRETROVIRALS

Eastern Cape headman: ‘You won’t find a child born with HIV in this village’

Babies getting HIV from their infected mothers is rare in a cluster of 39 villages in the OR Tambo district

  • Zano Kunene
10 min read
Photo by: David Harrison/M&G
BARGAINING COUNCIL

Community health workers are ditching unions

In South Africa, trade unions have a reputation for having workers’ back. But for many of the country’s community health workers, these organisations are no longer an ally.

  • Nicole Ludolph
8 min read
Workers demand that they be made permanent employees of provincial health departments — with higher salaries, as well as medical aid and pension benefits — instead of being outsourced to nonprofits organisations that pay them stipend.
BOB MASH

Why Covid likely won’t change the plight of community health workers

In the absence of action from the health department, South Africa’s community health workers are once again having to fight for their rights, with a nationwide strike planned…

  • Joan Van Dyk
19 min read
(Mail & Guardian)
COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS

Editorial: How do they sleep at night?

Department of health officials know they haven’t paid many community health workers on the ground in Gauteng since June. Do they care?

  • Editorial
2 min read
The real test for South Africa is not if the lockdown will help slow down the pandemic. Instead, lurking within and throughout this lockdown is a battle for the future of South Africa’s democracy. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
CLINIC

Disquiet on precarious front line

Last week community health workers were described as ‘troops on the ground’. But these front-line workers say they don’t have resources to fight Covid-19 if it rages through…

  • Sarah Smit
8 min read
Gauteng Premier David Makhura said the province would do whatever is needed to address the shortage of additional space and beds to accommodate the rising Covid-19 admissions in hospitals.
BANDILE MASUKU

Gauteng uses tragedy to fix services

In addition to other measures, the province’s response the outbreak of the coronavirus will be to ‘sort out’ the public healthcare system

  • Sarah Smit
5 min read