No resources for rural health motivators
MANZINI – While the country and the world over is still fighting the coronavirus pandemic, rural health motivators (bagcugcuteli) are reporting lack of face masks and medication to give to community members.
Rural health motivators are people who provide healthcare services to those in need. In Eswatini, they receive a monthly stipend of E350 from government.
According to a report by the Ministry of Health in 2014, there were over 5 000 rural health motivators in all the four regions of the country and they focused mostly on offering counselling services. However, the number has been reported to have decreased over the years.
This publication gathered that the rural health motivators have since not received their monthly stipend of E350 for about six months now, and government has not provided them with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves and face masks, as well as medication which they give to community members in need.
Masks
Instead, some of them have disclosed that they found themselves reusing face masks and buying painkillers from their pockets.
The plight that these rural heath motivators encountered had a negative impact because at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it puts them at a higher risk of contracting and spreading the virus, as they were the ones who had most contact with community members with various illnesses. During an interview with rural health motivator, Khalatsi Gama, she shared that the norm was that government was responsible for providing them with all the resources for working (PPE).
However, Gama said since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, they had received resources minimally, or not at all. Although this had happened before the pandemic, the support and assistance from government had been far worse during the coronavirus pandemic. Gama, who is from Luve area, revealed that she sometimes worked without gloves when she attended to community members who needed healthcare. She said there was also the challenge that she did not have medication.
Gama mentioned that they were not given PPE since mid-last year.
“This is a huge challenge for us because when community members come to us with different ailments, we are expected to provide them with first aid. But with no medication such as painkillers for headaches, I just send them away,” the rural health worker said.
She added that sometimes she found herself having to spend money from her own pocket, to purchase painkillers to give to community members before they sought healthcare from health facilities.
Gama elaborated that it was a prerequisite for rural health motivators to appear in a healthy state before community members, as they provided healthcare.
However, she highlighted that there was not enough food with the little stipend not coming in, and yet they also had to feed their families.
“We have lost weight and our state is just not acceptable. We are not a good representation to society,” she said.
Symptoms
Meanwhile, Gama mentioned that they were trained on how to deal with people with COVID-19 symptoms. She said they were well versed on the steps that should be taken when someone had the symptoms. “Nevertheless, all the training meant nothing if there are no resources. We only send them to hospital now, where they are sometimes not assisted because they are also told that there is medication shortage,” Gama said.
Meanwhile, Sindisiwe Dlamini, a rural health motivator from Ngwempisi said since they stopped receiving stipends, she could no longer supplement her struggling business. Dlamini, a hawker, said she wore plastic bags when attending to sick community members.“We are no longer given even the ORS sachets. Instead, we make the orals solution using water, salt and sugar from home,” she said.
Director of Health Services Dr
Vusi Magagula acknowledged the challenge that the ministry had in providing resources for rural health motivators. He said it was unfortunate that the rural health motivators were faced with this plight during the coronavirus pandemic. Magagula said it was an open secret that the country was facing fiscal challenges, which he attributed to the ministry not proving the caregivers the necessary tools. He encouraged donors to assist the ministry with any kind of support to the communities.
On the stipends, Magagula said he had been made to understand that they had moved away from the cheque payment system which was the current status quo in banks.
“So the delay when changing a system often meets a bit of some problems hence which we are working on. Cheques for bagcugcuteli will be paid out for the last time in this manner by the end of January after which the Mobile Money method will be used,” he said. The director added that rural health motivators did more talking and teaching, and health promoting most of the time.
Magagula mentioned that the ministry would share the PPE with what facilities had, which of course was not necessarily plentiful at all times.The plight of the caregivers is not unique as in 2017, our sister publication the Eswatini News once reported that two of them died after contracting Tubercolosis (TB).
This was after they had placed themselves at risk of contracting the virus from the people they had assisted as they were not provided with latex gloves and were forced to use their bare hands.