Doctors and nurses take to the streets

Having celebrated World Aids Day on the 1st of December and being in the period of 16 days of no Violence Against Women and Children, Voortrekker hospital’s CEO, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, arranged a parade for medical personnel through the streets of Mokopane on Tuesday.
“These two events directly affect us as doctors and medical personnel,” she told Northern News. “As doctors we deal with patients who are HIV positive and who have full-blown aids every day. We are also the ones who deal with the reality of abused children, rape victims of all ages and women injured in incidence of violence.”
Dr Ramathuba said the parade was held to create awareness of these realities in our community. She said the people of Mokopane should go back to their roots and ask themselves where they went wrong as a society that violence and HIV infection has become part of everyday life.
The parade ended in Ext 19 where an awareness programme was presented for the community. Ext 19 was chosen after the personnel of Voortrekker Hospital earlier became aware of rising incidence of malnutrition in this area.
“We realised we needed to leave the comfort of the hospital building and reach out to the members of our community if we were going to make a difference,” Ramathuba said.
The hospital embarked on a door-to-door campaign which saw many people being picked up and taken to hospital where they received medical care.
“That exercise helped us to realise we can no longest sit in our hospital and wait for patients to come to us. If we are going to win the battle against issues such as HIV Aids, violence against women and children and malnutrition, we are going to have to go out and fight.” - Jasper Raats (jasper@noordnuus.co.za)