The Catholic Health Care Association (CATHCA) is a faith-based health care organization founded in 1988, and an umbrella body for Catholic health care services in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland.
It is an associate body of the Southern African Catholic Bishop’s Conference. It represents 2 hospitals, 38 clinics, 16 hospices, 8 orphanages, 8 multi purpose health care centres, 6 health training institutions and more than 80 home based care projects. These make up a significant part of the non-governmental health care service in Southern Africa.
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CATHCA’s vision is to enable the provision of high-quality health care services to all, particularly the poor and marginalised, in Southern Africa, in the spirit and service of Christ.
CATHCA’s mission is to affirm,develop, support and strengthen both individual health care workers and an evolving Catholic health care network, in cojunction with all other health care role-players.
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CATHCA serves all people regardless of religion, race, language or gender affiliation. It is a non-profit and a public benefit organisation. Its members work in some of the most remote and poor areas of Southern Africa.
CATHCA funds home-based care training for rural caregivers, provides networking opportunities, assists with capacity building and skills training, advocacy and ethical issues, provides health information and runs national and regional conferences and workshops for its members.
It currently receives funding from the National Lottery, Bristol Myers Squibb, the Canadian International Aid Commission, Misereor, the Global Fund Against Tuberculosis, Malaria and HIV/AIDS, and from a major anonymous donor in the Netherlands.
CATHCA’s programmes
1. Home-based care Training
HBC training begun in 2009
Project / Diocese / NoFr Michael D’Annunci / Pretoria / 26
Sicelimpilo / Umzimkulu / 23
Amakhasi / Dundee / 18
St Teresa's / Aliwal North / 35
Mofumahadi / Pretoria / 18
TOTAL / 120
The training programme’s schedule:
- One month of lessons on health matters
- Two months Home Based Care lessons
- One month Palliative Care training delivered by palliative care trained nurse
- Ongoing practical training, where learners are accompanied by a qualified clinical facilitator
- After practical learning experience, a revision block
- One week of practical examinations, followed by the final written examination
2. Global Fund programme
CATHCA’s Global Fund programme achieved the following over the last two years:
3. CapacityBuilding Training
Training took place at each of CATHCA’s regional conferences throughout the year.
Region / No. of people attending / No. of organisations representedGauteng/North-West / 50 / 21
Mpumalanga/Swaziland/Limpopo / 45 / 17
Eastern/Western Cape / 33 / 10
Free State/Lesotho/N.Cape / 35 / 13
KwaZulu-Natal / 48 / 31
National / 29 / 12
Total / 240 / 102
CATHCA Staff 2010
Yvonne Morgan / DirectorThuli Mzamane / Development Manager
Sinikiwe Sithole / Global Fund Manager
Ian Hove / Global Fund Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
Loek Goemans / Office Administrator
Robin Martin / Finance Officer
Lungi Mbokazi / Capacity-Building Officer
Teresa Whitaker / Global Fund Finance Manager
Hester Barnier / Global Fund Administrator
Lungelwa Mhaka / Administrative Assistant
Ellen Lekalakala / Project Manager
The CATHCA Board
As CATHCA is the associate body for health of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, it is represented on the SACBC by its Liaison Bishop for Health, Bishop Stanley Dziuba of Umzimkulu diocese, KwaZulu-Natal.
CATHCA’s elected Board members for 2010/11 are:
- Sr Christine Jacob RSM (Mercy Clinic, Winterveldt, Gauteng)
- Dr Douglas Ross (St Mary’s Hospital, Mariannhill, KZN) – Chairperson
- Mrs Victoria Sofala (Fr D’Annunci Clinic, Gauteng North)
- Sr Claudia Ngema (Amakhasi Clinic, KZN)
In addition the following people serve on the Board in their ex-officio capacity:
- Bishop Stanley Dziuba (Liaison Bishop for Health: Umzimkulu Diocese, KZN)
- Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS (SACBC Associate Secretary General)
- Sr Maureen Yenson OP (Chairperson CATHCA Finance Committee)
- Sr Alison Munro OP (SACBC AIDS Office)
- Sr Fiona Vallance SP (LCCL SA representative)
- Dr Ann McCollum (Siyabhabha Trust)
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GOALS-2010
To continue to strengthen and develop home-based care in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland
To expand and improve the South African Government’s HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support programme
To develop effective partnerships with Government and other key stake holders
To provide capacity building to CATHCA staff and to CATHCA member organisations to improve their organisational effectiveness
To monitor and evaluate CATHCA and its members to improve programme efficiency and effectiveness
CATHCA 2009 Goals - evaluation of impact
Goal One: To strengthen and develop home-based care in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland
Objectives / Action / Comment1.1 Provide accredited training to 500 home-based caregivers in 8 provinces in South Africa / 487 new caregivers completed their training in 2009. / This has enabled 30 small organisations running home-based care programmes to care for 7 933 new cases of people with HIV/AIDS. There was a 4% attrition rate of learners and trained caregivers, due to illness, disinclination to be a caregiver and other job offers. Many learners are receiving accredited training for the first time since leaving school.
1.2 Provide 500 HBC kits to caregivers engaged in training / 500 kits were provided to newly trained caregivers / Properly-equipped HBC kits reduce the risk of infection for both caregiver and patient. CATHCA encourages organisations to obtain kit content refills from local health clinics, but in some cases this is not possible. In 2010 CATHCA will budget to provide some items such as gloves and masks itself.
1.3 Provide 1 000 caregivers with stipends / 843 caregivers received monthly stipends of R 650 / In many cases the stipend is the only income received by the family and organisations are encouraged to seek stipends from provincial health depts. However a recent survey of HBC organisations showed that few were getting stipends from Government.
1.4 Provide financial and/or technical support to 10 organisations to establish and maintain support groups for PLWAs / Organisations to run support groups were identified.
Ten support groups for PLWAs were established and maintained. / Setting up support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS proved more difficult than we anticipated because people tend to drop out once they feel better on their ARV regimen. Some do not have the money to travel to support group meetings. Projects also lacked expertise in running support groups.
1.5 Register as accredited training provider for HBC, Peer education, VCT, PEP, PREP, PMTCT, Palliative care / CATHCA submitted its application and the HWSETA came to verify information. The application is awaiting final approval. / Although it would normally use the facilities of the organisations/clinics where it trains, CATHCA has to have a full set of training equipment before it can be registered as a trainer. This is delaying final approval.
1.6 Provide technical assistance to projects in reporting, data collection techniques, M&E, finance / Workshops were run in early February for all 30 projects / Global Fund staff visited several of the projects during the year to follow up on the workshops, and responded to numerous phone calls throughout the year. Projects have found this to be a steep learning curve, but it has proved very beneficial for them in the long-run.
1.7 Develop CATHCA internal skills development plan / CATHCA appointed an internal Skills Development Facilitator registered with the HW SETA. It also appointed a Skills Development Committee. / The date for submission of the Workplace Skills Plan was missed in July but CATHCA drew up a plan for 2010 that will be submitted in June 2010.
Goal Two: To expand and improve the HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support programme
Objectives / Action / Comment2.1 Recruit and train 20 VCT counsellors in 7 provinces in South Africa / Twenty VCT lay counsellors were trained / Trained VCT counsellors receive a monthly stipend from CATHCA.
2.2 Provide 12000 VCT kits to CATHCA projects / No VCT kits could be supplied / The Dept. of Health’s Global Fund management team discovered that individual organisations had not been registered with Global Fund to act as vendors. This meant that all VCT test kits had to be supplied to projects through regional DOH offices. Projects were unable to get kits, as regional offices had no budget for this. The DOH has now registered CATHCA as a vendor to allow it to purchase its own VCT kits in 2010.
2.3 Train 10 peer educators / Ten peer educators were trained in the first quarter of 2009. / CATHCA provided trained peer educators with materials and a stipend.
2.4 Provide funding for projects to support 750 households with nutrition food packs / CATHCA provided food packs to 1 520 people / Most people living with HIV/AIDS who received food packs reported an improvement in their health as a direct result. This also enabled them to continue taking their ARVs.
2.5 Provide funding for maintaining 10 food gardens to projects / Ten food garden projects were provided with funding / Some projects did not report well on their food garden activities which affected the flow of funds to them.
Goal Three: To develop effective partnerships with Government and other key stakeholders
Objectives / Action / Comment3.1 Assist at least five (5) CATHCA member organisations to develop partnerships with local government health services and community leaders / CATHCA advised and put at least five organisations in touch with Government representatives during the year / (See comment for 3.3 below)
3.2 Be represented on SANAC committees and work more closely with SANAC / CATHCA was invited to join the SANAC NGO Working Group and attended a workshop in November 2009 / Being part of the SANAC group allows CATHCA to disseminate information to its members, and to serve as a conduit for the flow of information down and up. Recommendations on various issues such as male circumcision, community care givers, etc. come from this group to SANAC.
3.3 Identify and engage with key stakeholders in Government to develop a working relationship / Representatives from the Dept. of Social Development and Health spoke at all five of CATHCA’s regional conferences in 2009 / Having government representatives at CATHCA conferences allowed CATHCA members to meet and form a relationship with them on a regional level. In general Government representatives were impressed with the work being done, and committed to making themselves available for assistance.
3.4 Identify and engage with at least four (4) key stakeholders outside Government to develop a working relationship / CATHCA met with the AIDS Consortium, AIDS Response, the NGO Directors’ Forum and the SACBC AIDS Office among others in 2009 / CATHCA’s members work in the fields of home-based care, chronic illness, primary health care and wellness, caring for orphans and palliative care. This means that CATHCA needs to ensure that their voices and work are heard and understood among other organisations doing similar or related work. It also allows CATHCA to partner on workshops and information distribution.
3.5 Develop the CATHCA ‘brand’ as an attractive partner and sector player / No activity was undertaken on this during 2009. / Despite no formal marketing plan being formulated, CATHCA became more widely known in the health sector through the various activities described above.
Goal Four: To provide capacity building to CATHCA member organisations to improve their organisational effectiveness
Objectives / Action / Comment4.1. Develop CATHCA external training policy / CATHCA drew up a plan to implement capacity-building workshops. / This is a new initiative for CATHCA that will, funds permitting, be continued for some years, to help build sustainability among CATHCA member organisations.
4.2 Provide financial and/or technical support/training to 50 CATHCA member organisations to implement good organisational practices / One 2-day, four half-day and one full week workshops on organisational skills were held for 102 organisations and 240 people during 2009 / It was originally decided to hold two-day training workshops as part of the five regional conferences in 2009, but this did not allow sufficient time to develop each topic fully. A full week’s workshop was held in November and four more will be held in 2010, on governance, report-writing, financial management, budgeting, etc.
4.3 Develop training strategy for learners with less than ABET level 4. / CATHCA met with its training service providers to discuss how semi-literate or illiterate learners could be brought into training / This is not really within CATHCA’s scope, as it depends on the willingness and the cooperation of training service providers to ensure that such learners are included in training. CATHCA will continue to encourage trainers to develop ways to include these learners in its programmes, and to encourage learners to attend ABET classes before applying to be trained.
4.4 Assist CATHCA members to register as NPOs / Assistance to some CATHCA organisations on NPO registration was provided in an informal and ad-hoc way / CATHCA maintains information on how many of its members are registered as NPOs (which makes them eligible for government funding) and at every workshop or meeting encourage those not registered to apply. Nearly all CATHCA members are now registered or in the process of becoming so.
4.5 Provide support for 20 professional nurses to train as moderators, facilitators and assessors through the HW SETA to assist CATHCA / A survey on the number of professional nurses willing to be trained was conducted among CATHCA’s members / Only five nurses indicated their willingness to be trained. CATHCA will need to vigorously pursue this during 2010 if it is registered as a training provider with the SETA.
4.6 Assist all CATHCA members to access spiritual support, debriefing, stress management sessions / At one regional conference CATHCA staff ran a spiritual support programme for participants. / This is an area that CATHCA needs to develop more, as members expressed a great need for this. At the November board meeting a sub-committee was set up to consider how to maintain and grow the Catholic ethos among CATHCA members, and this will be one of the goals for 2010.
Our Funders
CATHCA would like to express its grateful thanks for the generosity of the organisations and people that funded its work in 2009:Bristol Myers Squibb Secure The Future Foundation
National Lottery Distribution Fund Trust
Misereor
Anonymous donor, Netherlands
And to all our individual donors:
THANK YOU!
CATHCA
P O Box 52015,
Saxonwold
2132
Gauteng
Room 7, The Haven,
St. VincentSchool for the Deaf
Cnr Tottenham/Jellicoe Aves
Melrose, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 880 4022Fax: 011 880 4084
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