South African Exploratory Trip

The first evening we are treated to a “braai”, a South African barbecue. We learn a great deal about Rehoboth as we spend the evening with Alfons and Ivonne, Sophie, an American volunteer, and Leo O’Connor. Leo works with churches and charitable organizations in the U.S., Europe, and South African to ensure that their donations are well spent and that the places like Rehoboth get their needs met. We watch a newly created video on Rehoboth and are struck by the “before” photos of some of the children we have met. In the videos the children look like they are in the final stages of life, yet when we meet them in person they are robust, glowing, happy children. Ivonne and Alfons tell us that all of the children are diagnosed with HIV/Aids and almost all arrive in very bad physical shape. Initially, Alfons and Ivonne thought Rehoboth would be more like a hospice for the children, but with good nutrition and medical care, and loving and nurturing adults the children have flourished physically and emotionally. Ivonne and Alfons also attribute the transformations to the Christian work at Rehoboth. Anti Retral Virus (ARV) drugs only became available to the children one year ago and the mums are trained how to administer the drugs for maximum effectiveness.

During the evening we talk in detail about the choice of languages to use with the children. Because English is the language of education in South Africa, Ivonne and Alfons are interested in hearing about the current research on bilingualism especially with children with language delays. We talk about how the discussion changes depending on whether the mums can provide good English language models and the effect on self esteem when the use of a child’s first language is discouraged. We talk about possibly having the English-speaking volunteers spend time with the mums so that their proficiency can improve. We also talk about continuing to use Zulu by the mums that do not have good proficiency in English and to encourage the continued use of Zulu with the children even as they acquire English. Cate offers to consult on a regular basis with Ivonne and Alfons on bilingual issues for the community, an offer that is gratefully accepted.   

Weekdays at 7:00 a.m. the school age children are driven to school in the Rehoboth vans. At 8:00 the mums and their two younger children and the staff and volunteers gather for devotions. Devotions begin with the mothers singing a capella Zulu gospel songs which are gorgeous. Then someone leads the devotion, usually by one of the directors. The talking and reading part is about 10 minutes long and it is immediately translated into Zulu. During devotions the children sit on their mums’ laps or wander around quietly.   

The preschool, or crèche, has two parts-the baby crib for children birth through 3 and the older crèche for children 3 to 5. The crèches have most of the toys, activities, table, and chair setups that we would expect to find in a head start or good preschool program.  Much focus on shapes, colors, body parts—but that is true in most preschools. The crèches are taught by one of the volunteers.

We volunteer to lead the crèche both mornings. Cate brought eight big books which were not the easiest carry on luggage to manage on the long journey; but the children’s responses make it all worthwhile. They love the Eric Carle books From Head to Toe, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Brown Bear Brown Bear. The children know all the African animals used in the From Head to Toe book. After just a little prompting, all read along the repetitive lines “Can you do it? Yes I can.” We sing several songs including a dancing song that they children love. Lesley brought play dough and she and Caitlin work with the children at tables for a long time making all kinds of shapes and creatures. The children are open and willing to learn.

On the second morning, we invite the mums to the crèche for a 30 minute training on how to use books with the children. Cate demonstrates beginning the book reading by asking the children what they think the book is about and what they know about what the book is about. When reading the book she shows how to draw the children’s attention to the printed word and how to use reading conventions such as reading the title and author to start and saying “the end” together at the end of the book. The mums join in and seem to enjoy the training. Before we leave we give out about 20 books so that each cottage has some of the classic story books we brought in our luggage. (The big books stay in the crèches.)

The Murchinson Hospital
Murchinson Hospital is the district hospital for this region and Dr. Bill Hardy is the medical director and chief of staff. Bill is on the board of Genesis and Rehoboth. We also meet Mary Reynolds, supervisor of all the SLTs, OTs, PTs, audiologists, and psychologists at the hospital. Mary is a physiotherapist who has been working at the hospital for 7 years. Several years ago the government began to require a community service year for graduates of most professional university programs. So most of the professionals working under Mary are right out of their training programs. 

Five years ago a man died of aids right outside the gates of the Norwegian Christian Church in Port Shepston. The pastor took this as a sign of his ministry and set in motion the work for Genesis. He saw his ministry as giving people dying with HIV/Aids the right to die with dignity. His mission then was to build a hospice for people dying of aids. It took 3 years to build the first unit. Genesis now has 3 units, a 20 bed unit for women, a 20 bed unit for men, and an administrative unit.

Although they expected Genesis to be a hospice where people would die, in fact, with the good nutrition and medical care they receive, 48 percent of the people go home. In the past year the anti retral virus (ARV) medication has been made available by the government. The world health organization recommends that ARV be given to all those with an immune level count of 300 to 350. But the South African government provides these medications only to those who have less than a 200 count. That is people who have very compromised immune systems.  

We meet one lovely woman who had contracted Aids from her husband who was unfaithful. She has a count of less than 200 and qualifies for the ARV but she also must have a support person to ensure that the all important protocol is followed. The ARV medicine is ineffective if the administration protocol is not strictly followed. So to be given ARV the patient and the support person must participate in a 3-day training about how to use the drugs. This woman does not have a support person for her. Her daughter is 14 and at a school away from her village. Her husband is not an appropriate choice. So until an appropriate support person can be found this woman, with an incredibly warm smile and heart, who looks quite healthy and even a little chubby, will stay in the hospice until she dies.  

Both units had people near death. In the men's unit there were a number of empty beds--maybe 12 of the 20 beds were empty. When asked why, we learn that there had been a number of deaths the night before.  

One man who is very sick is being visited by an apparently much younger woman and his daughter. The man is very, very thin--skin and bones. The woman and the baby look quite healthy and robust. When the visit is over, the man picks up his daughter and walks with her into the sun and speaks with her in Zulu. Then the mother and daughter walk away and he watches until they are out of sight. Cate and Lesley wonder whether this would be the last time he would ever see his daughter and wonder if he is thinking that as well. We have learned that it can take up to 10 years for symptoms of Aids to become evident and so the future good health of the mother and baby is not certain.  

This place is very upsetting to both Lesley and Cate. While there is definitely work we could do here in swallowing and language stimulation, we agree that it would be too much for the two of us. We feel privileged have seen Genesis and to have experienced this level of deep exceptional humanitarian work.

March 19-20 University of Cape Town

Dr. Shajila Singh is the chair of the speech and hearing program at University of Cape Town. Shajila earned her masters and doctorate from Northwestern University. We know how good this program is because Liat Rabinowitz who graduated from here and then came to our masters program at Teachers College, came with excellent training. Liat helped to arrange this visit for us.

Shajila provides a great deal of information to us on the program in Cape Town and the profession in general. This program is unusual because the speech and hearing program in fully integrated into the Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town. (That hospital is famous internationally for being the place where the first heart transplant took place in 1967.) Shajila has arranged for Celeste Samuels, one of the program’s full time clinical supervisors, to take us to visit two of their clinics.

The first clinic we visit is in one of the townships. The SLT we observe is a fourth, and final, year student. We are especially interested in seeing how they work with the many different languages and cultures of their patients from the townships. We watch two cases. The first is a woman with expressive aphasia who speaks Xhosa. The student clinician uses the woman’s husband as her interpreter. The other case is an Afrikaans-speaking colored man. This man had never received therapy. Just one month ago he saw a notice in the township about services offered for someone who stutters. He began therapy then and he and the student noted how significantly his stuttering had decreased as a result of the therapy.

Celeste then takes us to the Kangaroo Mother Care unit in Groote Schuur hospital. The SLT students show the mothers a short video on kangaroo care. This is the practice of having mothers put their babies vertically on their chests for skin-to-skin contact. According to the video Kangaroo care is more effective than incubators in increasing the baby’s weight. It developed in Bogotá, Colombia because there were not enough incubators. The mothers sit with their babies using the kangaroo care model, listen to the students and the videos, and talk.

 

We are amazed at the number of incubators at the hospital. We learn that the Cape Town region has more cases of fetal alcohol syndrome than any other place in the world. This is attributed to the fact that for centuries farmers paid their farm workers with bottles of wine. This so-called “dop system” was outlawed in 1980 but apparently continued until as recently as 1991. Such widespread alcoholism results in high numbers of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome which is why the hospital requires so many incubators at any one time.  

We speak with Shajila with our ideas about working and training in Rehoboth and in the Murchinson Hospital in Portshepston. She appreciates our focus on prevention and training. If we are to work in South Africa, we will need permission in the form of health certificates which Shajila can help us obtain.  

On the following day, Cate takes a tour of the townships. The level of poverty is very low in the townships. Even more disturbing is the number of people living in such poverty. Mant, many families live in miles and miles of townships around Cape Town. Similar townships exist throughout the country. The enormity of this situation underscores the great difficulty the country has in addressing the needs and effects of such widespread poverty. 

No trip to South Africa would be complete without a trip to see the animals. Caitlin and Cate spend three nights in Jackalberry Lodge in Thornybush Game Preserve next to Kruger National Park. We see so many animals--zebra, elephants, cheetah, lions, rhinos, wildebeests, and lots of African antelope. One day we follow a pride of 11 lions, including four males, that are hunting. Some of the lions walk within one foot of our completely open vehicle. Another day we sit in the midst of a herd of about 20 elephants. It is an extraordinary experience.

On Easter Sunday Cate looks for a traditional service in one of the local languages. After some effort she finds that Lawrence, a tracker, and David, a gardener, from the lodge are leaving after the morning drive for a service. They belong to the Zion Christian Church. The church service begins with singing and dancing outside. All the singing and dancing comes from the traditional African languages, dances, and singing styles of the local region. The multipart a capella singing is fantastic. Between songs the men do a series of rhythmic syncopated steps with high jumps all done in unison. Cate has seen enough documentaries of African tribes to recognize these dances and even the singing as indigenous to the region. 

The Zion Christian Church dress code is quite strict. Women must cover their heads, wear a skirt, and wear a jacket over their shirt. The uniform for women is a deep blue dress with a green knitted cap. The men wear dark khaki pants and jackets--all perfectly matching. they all wear a special white shoe with tire treads for soles so the worshipers do not injure their legs from all the jumping and stamping in the dancing. Both men and women wear a piece of dark blue fabric with a silver 5 pointed star pinned on it to indicate they are members of the Zion Christian Church.  

About 60 African women are in a circle singing and dancing. Within that circle are about 15 girls ages 4 to 12 doing the same singing and dancing. Cate asks the pastor for permission to join in. The pastor brings her around to the senior women--the ones who were starting the songs and the dancing. One woman leaves the circle to adjust Cate’s hat, sarong, and jacket, and then invites her in. They sing songs in Tsonga and Zulu with harmonies off all kinds -- over, under and around the melody and beat--while dancing in a circle. Cate is in heaven!

 

March 25-27 Johannesburg

We meet with the faculty of the speech and hearing program at Witz University in Johannesburg. The morning conference on bilingualism is, but we spend the morning in a round table discussion with Claire Penn and Heila Jordaan. We talk about the South African speech and hearing programs and compare them to those in the U.S.  Heila talks about the lack of speech language therapy positions in schools in South Africa. She is working on developing a consultative model for SLT work in the schools which, in the long run, may be much more effective than the primarily pull-out model currently in place in U.S. schools.

The following day we travel with Karin xxx, a lecturer at Witz, to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in the Soweto township. This hospital is the largest in the southern hemisphere. There are 15 speech language therapists and seven interpreters employed by the hospital. The speech language therapists are expected to meet the speech and hearing and audiological needs of the hospital. They are stretched thin because the hospital is so large.

We observe a session in the cerebral palsy clinic. Once a child is identified as having a speech or language disorder needing our services, they are given six one-hour sessions over six months--or one one-hour session a month for six months. Due to the shortage of therapists, the services are limited and primarily devoted to training the parents on how to provide services in between sessions with the therapists. They follow a transdiciplinary model so that the SLT and, in the case we observed, the OT provide services together. In observing just one session, we can see how the mother has learned to hold the child appropriately and to do the language stimulation. We note how effective this system seems to be. If the child needs AAC the mother and child will get more training. But due to the huge number of children needing services, this is the model they have in place at the hospital.

 

Speech language pathologist seem well qualified to address these delays. We are trained to provide language stimulation and know the kinds of language skills that are needed to succeed academically. These include vocabulary development, broadening prior knowledge, and developing problem solving and inferencing skills. In addition, the SLP students at Teachers College come with  significant understanding of and sensitivity to cultural and linguistic differences as this information is infused throughout the curriculum. In this way, the Teachers College students will be able to integrate that information as they work with people from different cultures and who speak different languages. 

One major difference between bringing students to South Africa than to Ghana or Bolivia is the presence of speech and language therapy programs here. South African has six or seven speech language therapy programs. The quality of these programs is quite high. But, because there are not enough SLPs to provide sufficient services, the university faculty we spoke with and the professionals in the field encouraged us to come. Of course, we would ensure that we worked through the South African system to obtain whatever clearances we needed to be authorized to provide the services.  

One of the high points for us was observing the University of Cape Town clinics in the townships and Witz University's and University of Cape Town's work in the hospitals to learn how they work with patients who do not speak the same language as the clinician. In addition, we established potential collaborative relationships with the faculty of Witz University in Johannesburg and University of Cape Town that are likely to enrich and inform our work in the U.S.