GRM Donates to Mahube Care Centre for HIV/AIDS Patients, Pretoria

“Communities 1st, a GRM Initiative” has donated ZAR 62,175 (approx. USD10,000) to fund a bed in the Mahube Care Centre, Pretoria. The financing of one Care Centre bed will enable the Centre to provide medical care and support for AIDS patients who are either homeless or ostracised due to their health status.

In the six bed Care Centre, patients are treated in a caring and accepting environment and introduced to a broader network of support facilities within the Mahube Healing Centre, which offers free voluntary counselling and testing, HIV/AIDS training programmes, two weekly support groups, food parcels and vitamin supplements for the needy. 

In just two years, the Mahube centres have made an enormous difference to patients’ quality of life. They offer a safe place where they can share with others, be referred to sources of assistance, and get help from others who are similarly challenged.

South Africa has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. The World Health Organisation stated in 2003 that the number of South African adults with HIV had increased from 0-1% of the population in 1986 to 20-39% by the end of 2001. Further, the number of pregnant women with HIV in 2001 had risen to 25%.

The extent of infection is such that existing infrastructures in the community are not able to cope with the needs of those infected and affected by this disease.  

Mahube is a Sesotho word meaning dawn: the time of day when light starts to infiltrate the darkness. In partnership with other initiatives based in the inner city of Pretoria (Tshwane), Mahube seeks to bring such hope to AIDS sufferers through community based care and support services.

For further information about Mahube: http://www.weschurch.co.za/Mahube.html (please note - links to external site) or email mahube@weschurch.co.za