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COLABORATORS:
Mahlungulu Foundation
 The Mbizana community program was founded by the Mahlungulu Foundation for Community and Individual Development. The director, Sarah Mahlungulu PhD, is a nurse who returned to her home village of Numlaco and saw large numbers of sick people receiving no care or support. In response, she left her high-profile post at the University of KwaZulu Natal Nursing School and started a family foundation with the main objective of providing HIV/AIDS prevention, and health promotion programs directed at the needs of women, youth and children. A key component of this effort has been a home-based care program carried out by Community Health Workers.
Mbizana is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This area has the highest HIV prevalence in the province (>30%). Few people in Mbizana had received HIV testing prior to the establishment of the Mahlungulu Foundation due to lack of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) centers. Residents of Mbizana lacked knowledge and direction of how and where to receive care. The only provision of medical care for the sick came from female community volunteers assisting neighbors and families. These women had no support, guidance or professional training on how to care for gravely ill patients.
Ms. Mahlungulu began to train women who had been helping as community health volunteers in home-based care. She developed a training course and manual to guide their work. The Community Health Workers (CHWs) were trained in the following areas: basic home care skills for patients living with HIV, general HIV education and prevention, care and counseling skills to encourage people to seek testing; fundamental training in primary health care, including immunization provision, referrals for prenatal care, and health promotion/ health education knowledge. Currently there are 10 CHWs who are following a caseload of over 300 active patients at any given time in addition to providing patient’s families with relevant counseling. Presently, CHW’s volunteer and receive no income for their critical role in caring for the sick. The Mahlungulu Foundation, working in partnership with Sibusiso, is hoping to find support to put a nurse clinic in place to provide a more extensive range of preventive and curative services.
 The sole hospital in the Mbizana Municipality reports a shockingly high HIV prevalence of 42%. In spite of this high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in this area, health promotion and illness prevention programs, specifically those directed to HIV/AIDS among youth, women and children, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA), AIDS orphans and care givers are still at their infancy stage in this area. It is the goal of Sibusiso to continue partnership with the Mahlungulu Foundation to foster growth and expansion of programs working against the HIV epidemic.
Mystic Chorale Choir
http://www.mysticchorale.org/index.php
The Mystic Chorale non-profit organization, in their Spring Concert, partnered and supported Sibusiso’s South African efforts by donating 500 tickets to Sibusiso, with the sales proceeds going directly to help assist Sibusiso’s work in South Africa. Nick Page, an accomplished musician and choral director, lead the Mystic Chorale’s 200+ voice choir. Many Mystic Chorale members have ties to South Africa and this spring’s concert event will be a moving and powerful. According to Mystic Chorale “Much has changed in South Africa since Nelson Mandela was elected as President of the Republic of South Africa in 1994, but not the power of its music to move mountains and empower the soul.”
Songs were performed in both English and Zulu and reflected ninety years of South African choral music, beginning with songs that were sung in protest to the Apartheid regime and helped break down barriers and years of oppression. Today in South Africa there is another moving and important struggle taking place, and music is being used to raise awareness, educate the public and challenge leaders to be more proactive in the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS. Music is proving to be a powerful force in this effort and Sibusiso is grateful to Mystic Chorale’s work in promoting this concert and donating proceeds of to Sibusiso’s efforts.
The amount of donations from the Mystic Chorale events totaled over $10,000.
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