Iso'Lezwe

Some of you must be wondering why we are going to all of these places, such as Kalkfontein?  I haven't spoken much about my projects here in South Africa, and I suddenly seem to have many, but mostly, I am here to offer my skills as a Non-Profit CFO/Controller and sort of a grantwriter.  Mostly, I am working on grants, both researching possibilities and actually writing grants. Yesterday was my first ever grant submission.

(Judy - are you reading this??  I hit send!))(and MY how stressful that was!)

Last week, Subina discovered a funding source that would work for the tiny little Iso'Lezwe Medical Clinic.  This clinic used to be located in Kalkfontein, in a donated building.  Since the Fellows were here last year, the building was lost and there is now no medical facility or services of any kind in the community.  Keep in mind the high rate of HIV/Aids patients, along with an increasing number of cancer victims, the small children, and no medical clinic, no doctor, nothing.

What the community does have, though, are a few Caregivers, and it was this group of young women that I was writing the grant for.


These are the three cargivers that are currently working here in Kalkfontein.  They provide in-home care services to five HIV/Aids patients. They do this with no supplies at all.  No thermometer.  No BP kit.  No latex gloves, no tongue depressors, nothing.

That is what I wrote the grant for.


In a perfect world, the grant I wrote would have been stronger, I would have been more persuasive.  The fact that I had not been out to Kalkfontein and heard the stories of these young women before I wrote the grant - that was a shame.  When I came back to Beluah last evening, I only had an hour before the grant had to be submitted, not enough time to completely revamp the writing.  But I was able to put more of a face on it, I was able too add in supplies and equipment.

The hope is that a large shipping container (which have become, here in South Africa, a regular means of housing or place for your retail store) which has already been donated to the LEAP School, and in turn to the Iso'Lezwe Clinic - that we can raise enough money to move it from Pineland to that empty land space in the farm photo of Kalkfontein.

In a perfect world (well, in a perfect world we wouldn't even be talking about having these sorts of issues), the grant will be funded and this container will be moved (coming in under budget, of course :) ), and the retrofitting will take place (windows and electric added), and in a flash, this shipping container will be come the new Iso'Lezwe Medical Clinic, giving the community of Kalkfontein a place to meet, hold support group meetings, and have educational seminars on health-related issues.

In the meantime, the caregivers will continue to work with no supplies, and the owner of this shack house will continue to host the HIV/Aids support group meetings in her home.  I wasn't sure, but I think the owner is wearing the pink hat.

As a side note, before we Fellows left, the pink hatted lady said that she wanted to say something.  She gathered her thoughts and said this ~

"I am hungry.  We are hungry.  We have no food.  My doctor won't sign the form that says I can't work, so I can't get the budget. (disability checks) My childs are hungry.  The doctor says I can work, but I can't.  I have HIV.  That is all I have to say."

That might be all I have to say as well.