Day five - bringing it full circle

Meet Mr. Xaba. He lives daily below the line.

My research, if you're not aware, is collecting stories about people and their experiences with TB, HIV, and a medication that prevents people with HIV from getting TB. This means I travel at least once a week to one of the beautiful communities in the Edendale Hospital catchment area to talk with people that live daily below the line. 

Yesterday, the last day of my 5-day challenge, was one of my days "in the field" (Miriam tells kids at school that I'm "in a field"). Sthe (the research assistant on my project and also the CEO of Izimbali Zesizwe) travelled with me to the ward office in a community near Maritzburg to meet the community care giver (CCG) that had arranged yesterday's interviews for us. She wasn't there. She also wasn't at her home next to the ward office. Instead we met Mr. Xaba pictured above. Mr Xaba was sitting patiently on a log outside the gates to the ward office (as seen below). We asked him if he was also waiting for Nonhlahla, our CCG contact. "No," he said, "I came from the clinic this morning because they told me that some days they give out food parcels at the ward office." No one was at the ward office because there was a meeting they were attending at city hall. That didn't deter Mr. Xaba. He hoped someone would return and possibly give him a food parcel. He has tuberculosis. Many of you (even South African friends) may not know exactly what TB is, nor know of someone who's had it. That's because TB goes hand in hand with poverty. It is a disease spread through cough, and if transmitted may stay in a healthy host's body for their whole life without being discovered or becoming active. This is called latent TB infection, and about a third of the world's population has it. If you are well-nourished, live in housing with adequate ventilation and less than one occupant per room, if you have potable water available from your tap, and at least one toilet in your house, your odds of getting latent TB infection are very slim. Your chances of that TB activating to disease are next to nil. 

If on the other hand you have no regular job, live in dilapidated and crowded housing, squish next to people coughing in a minibus when you need to travel long distances, and struggle to access food... your chances of not only acquiring latent TB infection, but it activating to a contagious cough and deadly disease are pretty darn high. If you have HIV (which is transmitted a lot more regularly in similar circumstances not because of ignorance or polygamy, but because of poor general health and endemic infectious diseases like bilharzia that thrive in these conditions and make you a heck of a lot more likely to become infected), your body is 10 times as likely to activate that latent TB infection living inside of you.

The good news is that TB is treatable and can be accessed for free in nearly every part of the world. This doesn't make it an easy process. The four drugs to treat TB must be taken for at least 6 months, and sometimes for years. They are hard on the body and can really upset your digestive system if not taken with food. Food. Simple access to food at least once a day. Something not available to so many millions of people in South Africa. That is why Mr. Xaba sat here patiently waiting for a donated hamper. He is old and not employable, especially with his ailing health because of active TB (which often leads to rapid weight loss, coughing fits, prolonged fever, and night sweats). Little did he know that the food hampers are only dispersed on Thursdays (yesterday was Friday).

As part of my project, we provide food and a R50 ($5) stipend to those who participate in interviews about their experiences. Mr. Xaba wasn't eligible for an interview, but we did have two packages of chicken and chips ready to give to other interviewees. Because Sthe works with local municipalities to provide food packages, she knew he had missed his opportunity for this week. We gave him the two parcels (a later interviewee said it was ok because she would have done the same... we came back later with food for her and her family), and offered him the meagre stipend. He was incredibly grateful (recall that the same amount - R50 - fed me for 5 days). 

These are decisions I make every day working and being welcomed into these communities. I can't help everyone, but Sthe's NGO does make a big difference to many of them. I urge you to consider donating to Izimbali Zesizwe, the beneficiary of my challenge this year. 

Mr. Xaba sat here patiently for hours in
hopes of accessing a food parcel