Internships

Kathryn Bailey ’10

TEBA Development is a non-profit organization that gives back to mineworker communities by providing home-based care (HBC), including psycho-social support and referrals to local clinics, for ex-mineworkers who have had to leave their jobs at the mines due to ill health (mostly HIV/AIDS and TB). My project focused on the HBC program and I observed the home visits and structure of the program in different regions (Lesotho and Eastern Cape). I traveled with the HBC Coordinators of the different regions and the local fieldworkers to the homes of the HBC patients; I interviewed the patients about the effectiveness of the program and their perceptions of illness and the role of biomedicine in their healing and coping processes. One of my goals was to understand the health systems and their limitations, the perspectives and opinions of local people and the challenges they face. In Lesotho I assessed the cost and challenges of changing the HBC structure to be as it is in the Eastern Cape, where TEBA employs their own nurses and care supporters instead of using those in the local clinics. I assessed the effectiveness of the current program, the cost of switching the program structure in Lesotho and challenges that will be faced in the transition. I provided recommendations based on my observations of the differences between the two regions.