Matilda Project

Matilda Project is in funding partnerships with 4 HBC teams, who care for a total of about 800 people dying of AIDS and 800 children orphaned by AIDS.
Our grants cover supplementary food for the most malnourished patients, as well as basic nursing tools like soap, gloves, bleach, cotton wool, linen savers, vaseline.
In the arid west of the Zimbabwe which has been experiencing severe food shortages since mid-2002, we are also able to fund food packs for child-headed families and other orphans who have no income.

Home Based Care (HBC) is a grassroots response at community level to the AIDS crisis.
Local teams of Zimbabwean volunteers bring HBC to their neighbours who are dying of AIDS at home. In preparation they have received basic training in:

Communication Skills
Basic Facts about STDs & HIV/AIDS
Basic Nursing Skills
Infection Control
Counselling
Conducting a Home Visit
Referrals (When, where to etc.)
Monitoring & Supervision
Community Mobilisation

Their tasks centre around these primary areas which also enable them to assess a patient’s condition, e.g. how the carers are managing, whether the patient has eaten, degree of support/isolation, suitability of environment. HBC volunteers wash patients, clothes and bedding, treat bedsores, advise on hygiene, provide support, and as necessary help with household chores, like collecting water.

Who are we?

Project Advisor (voluntary)
Stefan Germann, who is the Salvation Army’s Africa Regional Team Focal Person on Children, Youth and AIDS, has given us the benefit of his wide experience since the Matilda Project was still a dream. Stefan is Swiss and has been living in Zimbabwe since 1991. He is married to Thenjiwe, and they have 2 children. Each of our partner HBC teams has been recommended by him, and he is in contact with the team administrators.

Team Leaders
Dr. Paul Thistle
Paul and Pedrinah Thistle, and James live at the
Howard Hospital, where Paul, who is from Toronto, is chief medical officer, obstetrician, research scientist …
Pedrinah has recently qualified as a midwife. She came first in Zimbabwe!
The hospital has 144 beds and runs on a yearly budget of US$40,000.

Major Maurice Davis, hospital administrator,
oversees the community health programmes.

Captains Willard and Modester Ndlovu
Willard administers the HBC team at Masiye in the Matopas near Bulawayo. Modester is currently training as a nurse.
They trained 50 volunteers for the start-up HBC team for neighbouring district, Gulati, in May 2003. Willard buys and delivers its HBC supplies as well as Masiye’s. As HBC leader in the area, Willard is often called upon at night to bring a critically ill patient to the nearest hospital 40km away.

Dave and Gloria Green
Founders of the Nehemiah Project, which is attached to City Pentecostal Assembly in Bulawayo. One of the
pastors was detained overnight in February 2003 because the police found a bag of mealie meal in his
car. The HBC team takes referrals from the community.

And then at home in Ireland, an amazing gang of people who give their time and skills to make the Matilda Project a reality. Thanks to you all, not least our families, for your enthusiasm and generosity!