HBC Kit Distribution

At the end of January, Lorren, Nyarie, and I spent three days distributing home-based care (HBC) kits to child carers at five different clinics in the Hwange district.  Although these kits consist of extremely basic medical supplies, they are incredibly useful for the people in the rural areas and they can do wonders for basic health care and cleanliness, particularly when fending off opportunistic infections in people living with HIV and AIDS. 

A full HBC kit consists of:
- one twenty liter bucket
- one ten liter bucket
- one apron
- one tube of betadine ointment
- two jars of vaseline
- three bars of antibacterial soap
- one 1kg bar of laundry soap
- two packets of oral rehydration salts
- one washcloth
- one canvas bag
- one packet of cotton wool
- one can of bicarbonate of soda

Supplies we left at the clinics for all child carers to check out:
- packets of linen savers (basically disposable bed liners)
- extra bicarb of soda
- five liter bottles of bleach (called 'jik' here)
- betadine ointment and solution
- extra gauze and cotton wool
- household rubber gloves
- boxes of disposable latex gloves
- extra soap and vaseline

These basic supplies are mainly used to try and maintain a living situation that is as sanitary as possible for both the client and the child carer.  Most items on these lists are self explanatory, but the jik is used for cleaning purposes and the bicarb of soda is used to cure thrush (yeast infection of the mouth commonly seen in HIV positive and AIDS patients).

Not all of the children were given full kits; only the five children with the sickest parents got full kits at each clinic, but all of the children were given soap and vaseline as well as full access to the remainder of the supplies we left with the nurses to distribute as needed.  This system is obviously not perfect, but we distributed as many kits and supplies as we possible could.  The biggest problem I had with the distribution was the selection of the most needy children - who knows what could happen next week with all the other child carer's parents and guardians?

Most of the kits and supplies were donated from Save the Children, but a few of the kits came from World Vision complete with bright orange bags and hand-written notes from the lovely people who donated that specific kit. (as a side note, I was very impressed that these notes were included in the kits. they embody the kind of promise that NGO's and charities are constantly making to donors but that is very difficult to see followed through, so kudos to World Vision).

Here are a few pictures of the HBC kit distribution at Jambezi clinic:

Some of the secondary school children listening to the nurse describe how to use the various items in the kits and from the clinic

Me inventorying supplies while the children line up to sign the registers

Our three facilitators (second from left, fifth from left, and sixth from left), myself, and three of the children who recieved the full kits (in front)

Some primary school girls signing the register with help from Nyarie

The whole group with their vaseline, soap, and kits.