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LifeLine/Childline Western Cape is proud to be involved with a new and unique initiative, together with the Desmond Tutu TB Centre. The PEPFAR TB/HIV Integration Project is a collaboration between the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, City of Cape Town, Provincial Government of the Western Cape and five non-government organisations. With two-year grant funding from PEPFAR, the DTTC will undertake various TB and HIV initiatives, including the establishment of Community Flexi-Hour Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres, in partnership with these local NGOs.
In the Western Cape, we face the dual challenges of alarming TB and HIV epidemics. The 2005 HIV Antenatal Prevalence survey found a rate of 15.7 percent in the Western Cape, almost half of the national rate of 30.2 percent. The rate in the Western Cape, however, has increased by 80 percent over the last five years. This is also the province with the highest incident of TB, at 908 per 100,000 people and almost 49,000 TB cases being diagnosed in 2006. And HIV is one of the factors fuelling this growing TB epidemic.
Preventing new HIV infections is the most powerful way to reduce TB. It is estimated that 10 – 15 percent of the newly diagnosed HIV-positive clients will have active TB. Early detection and treatment not only reduces illness and death among those with HIV, but also reduces TB transmission to the general community. This project addresses both challenges through the establishment of community-based VCT services, where routine screening for TB will also take place.
“We, LifeLine/Childline Western Cape, are operating primarily in the Khayelitsha area but also for two days a week will be in the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Athlone,” said Jerome Vencencie, Human Resources manager for LifeLine/Childline Western Cape.
“There are currently three counsellors running this programme, but eventually there will be a team of four. They will work together with two nursing staff,” he said.
“I believe this is a unique opportunity for LifeLine because we are part of a study where we will see the effects TB has with the HIV virus. And this can begin the process of preventative measures being put in place. It is exciting for us to be involved in such groundbreaking work,” Jerome said.
Although VCT services are widely available in clinical settings, access to VCT is limited to those who attend clinics. For this reason, 66 percent of clients using VCT services in the Western Cape are women, half of whom access VCT in antenatal settings, and 70 percent of clients have HIV tests for medical reasons. Few of those who engage in risky sexual behaviour, and who are asymptomatic, know their HIV status and this contributes to the spread of the virus.
The thinking behind the establishment of community flexi-hour VCT centres is to expand access to VCT for several groups of people who do not readily access services in clinics, as well as:
- To the general population, particularly those who may be working, through services being made available outside of working hours;
- To men, who utilise general health services less frequently than women;
- To youth, through the establishment of youth-friendly VCT services;
- To couples, as current VCT services are not geared towards the counselling and testing of couples;
- Through outreach services into the community – sports clubs, youth clubs, church organisations, local small businesses – and individual households to raise awareness about HIV and to promote VCT.
In the first year of the project, centres will be established in the areas of Wallacedene, Delft South, Site C, Kuyasa, Nyanga and Kayamandi. In the second year of the project, sites may be established in Mbekweni, Brown’s Farm and some additional sites. |
| LifeLine/Childline
Western Cape was established in Cape Town in 1968
and has, since then, been providing ongoing telephone
counselling, offering immediacy and an intimate
means of communication to those needing to talk.
The need for an organisation committed to the prevention
of child abuse became increasingly apparent and
in 1995 Childline became a division of LifeLine
Western Cape. On average, the crisis lines receive
around 4,500 calls per month. With offices in
Cape Town, Wynberg, Khayelitsha, Guguletu, Bishop
Lavis, Mitchell’s Plain and now in Athlone, LifeLine/Childline
Western Cape has grown considerably and now employs
113 members of staff. The majority of the organisation's
staff members work in the area of HIV/AIDS counselling
in the clinics and day hospitals around the greater
Cape Town area.
Cape Town office:
021 461 1113
Bishop Lavis office:
021 934 3027
Guguletu office: 021 633 6191
Khayelitsha office:
021 361 9197
Mitchell’s Plain office: 021 372 5591
Wynberg (Childline) office:
021 762 8198
Athlone (youth development)
office: 021 638 0913
If you need to talk, for whatever reason, we’re
here. Call 021 461 1111 or 0861 322 322 (LifeLine)
or 021 461 1114 or 08000 55 555 (Childline) at
any time of day or night, for anonymous, confidential
counselling.
LifeLine/Childline Western Cape
56 Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001
Tel: +27 21 461 1113
Fax: +27 21 461 6400
Email: info@lifelinewc.org.za
Website: www.lifelinewc.org.za
002-837 NPO
Section 18A/PBO Status : 18/11/13/1085 |
