HIV/AIDS Support Programme

The Darling Trust
Saving lives through simple measures
Individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Darling receive their ARV treatment from a clinic in Malmesbury, around 40 km away. As there is no public transport, the state provides an ambulance at an unaffordable cost of R25 per person per trip; this resulted in many not receiving their medication basically because they are poor and cannot pay for the transport to the clinic. Some patients resorted to hitching lifts to Malmesbury but most were unable to reach the clinic at all. Regular monitoring of those infected with HIV is crucial so that doctors can prescribe the right treatment and to prevent progression to AIDS. For some, it takes just a few weeks for their condition to deteriorate beyond help so this was an extremely urgent case.

Through fundraising, The Darling Trust obtained the funds to buy a 16-seater Toyota mini bus and have been providing a free transport service between Darling and Malmesbury since February 2005. This has made a huge difference for those living with HIV in Darling - now they are being carefully monitored, given the correct treatment and supported emotionally through the various services offered for free at the Malmesbury clinic.

As a healthy diet is essential to the success of ARV, The Darling Trust also delivers nutritious food parcels to those on treatment who cannot afford to eat well. These food deliveries help to ensure the treatment has the best possible chance of keeping HIV under control.

The farmers of a 100 farms surrounding Darling are pleased with the huge HIV/AIDS awareness and testing campaign that The Darling Trust is co-ordinating and bringing to the farms together with the Stellenbosch University’s Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS management towards the end of July. This campaign aims to inform and educate the remote, often illiterate farm folk about this threatening scourge in the guise of a mini-musical ‘Lucky, the Hero’, in order for them to manage their lifestyles.  Righttocare will be doing the necessary counselling and testing on site. All the preparatory work for this project is in place – we’re just biding the lull in the farming season for optimal execution.  What you measure, is what you manage. . .

Disabled children

Disabled children from Darling are picked up at their homes every day and transported, along with one of their teachers, to the Wilge Day Care Centre at Orion in Atlantis, and returned home safely every afternoon in the same Siyaya minibus of The Darling Trust.  The mothers would tell of their peace of mind, knowing that the child is being fed, receiving physiotherapy, educational stimulation and professional care, while she is relieved of the constant demands of taking care of a special needs child so that she can do her housework unhampered, spend quality time with the other childen, and even have time to socialize with the neighbours.  

Darling Clinic

The Darling Clinic knows what The Darling Trust means to them.  Sister Lewis would speak of a wheelchair, steriliser, digital scales for adults and babies, of curtains that would not have been there, but for the Trust.  She would tell of the reliable assistance with transporting HIV+ individuals, of assistance with ad hoc patients to be transported to and collected from Malmesbury – women for sterilisation, children for their teeth.  And she would brighten visibly at the mention of the larger clinic to be incorporated in the plans of the Darling Community Health and Recreation Centre currently being  developed; the clinic is hopelessly under-resourced, as nurses have to share consulting rooms, and the bandage room needs to double as consulting room for the visiting psychiatrist.

 Ad hoc health support

And lastly there are those individuals whom The Darling Trust assists as the need arises, the ad hoc health support in the form of a monthly amount paid into a farm hand’s account to cover the monthly transport costs to Cape Town for the continued treatment of the disfiguring growth on her little daughter’s nose, the 12 year old leukaemic boy who is transported to St Joseph’s at the Red Cross Hospital, receives food parcels and got his own cupboard for Christmas, the measurable support for our local Cansa drive, the newborn clothes parcels for teenage mothers – these are proof that The Darling Trust is making inroads into achieving its mission with regard to their involvement in the Health sector.

Please help us save more lives
In the time it has taken you to read this page, another 2 lives have been lost – please help us change this frightening reality. The transport and food services require constant funding; we have to employ a driver with a relevant public driver’s permit, pay for fuel and services, buy and prepare food. We also desperately need further funding to allow us to reach those infected with HIV living further a field. The Darling Trust is literally saving lives; please consider making a donation to enable us to continue this very important project. We are grateful for all assistance, email info@thedarlingtrust.org if you think you can help.