Milliag Mhlanga

My name is Milliah Mhlanga I am 62 years old. I live in Desai compound in Lusaka, Zambia.  I belong to the Zambia Homeless and Poor Peoples Federation (ZHPPF) HBC and I have been a Home based caregiver for eight years now. Although I was trained as a caregiver just eight years ago, I have been working as a caregiver since I was 30 years old. I used to offer my help voluntarily to people in my area, I used to assist those that had been discharged from hospital but were not yet strong enough to do household chores. My service did not go unnoticed by the community, thus when an opportunity came for palliative care training, I was selected to do the training. People saw how committed I was.Through my continued commitment, I was chosen as a leader. My community wanted others to learn from my example of commitment.  We are doing a lot in our community, but it is not recognized by the government. For this reason, when time came to form the Home Based Care Alliance I took the lead. I wanted our efforts to gain recognition. If I compare the situation 30 years ago when I started giving my services to the community, I can see now that the burden is becoming more. As home based care givers we have more to do now. Previously (30 years ago) I used to see an average of two people per month but now I have over 20 people on average to take care of every month. There are more people that the hospitals are discharging who still need care.  The nurses and doctors at the hospital never make follow ups on the patients they discharge; it is up to people like me to take care of them until they are strong enough.

One moment that inspired me was when we had a patient in our community who needed 24 hours care. I could not manage to do this alone. I informed other caregivers and we took turns to take care of her until she died. This made me realize that we needed to work together even though we were trained and reported to different organizations. Also as we worked we shared our experiences, from which I noticed that we were basically facing the same challenges. These challenges could only be addressed if we united and spoke with one big voice. As a caregiver I provide compressive care for the patient. A nurse will give medicine but will not take care of other needs such as washing the patients (especially those bedridden who cannot manage to walk to the restroom). Also as a caregiver I develop a relationship with the patient which nurses rarely do because they have shifts and may be assigned to a different ward. But as a caregiver the patient will see me every day and we have more time for discussion which helps build trust. They look to me not as a caregiver but as their grandmother, mother, sister or aunt. Such care is not provided for by government workers. As we try to form the HBC alliance we have to do a lot of movements to meet caregivers in other parts of the district, and this cost money.  We have to limit our movement depending on money available. I would have like it if the whole country was covered in the formation of an alliance but that is a challenge. If government and Non governmental organizations were to assist us, we could appreciate it and make an alliance that covers the whole country.

My vision for my community is that we should be able to have caregivers who are recognized by the government within our community. Non governmental organizations come and go but we shall always be with our government. If the government recognized us as workers, then we could have a continuation of HBC services in our community. My vision is also to see that we have viable income generating activities in our community that would provide funds to assist the clients in our community.  There are times when as a caregiver, I use my own funds to assist where there is a pressing need.

I have hope for the future because the few meetings we have had so far in planning to form the Alliance have shown me that we can do it. We have the confidence and we are united even though we are coming from different organizations.

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This story can be found in The Home-Based Care Alliance Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 2 August 2011.  This is issue also includes Global Advocacy Updates, Benin Caregivers Taking Lead, Overcoming Obstacles & Transforming Community, and more!