Mfuleni

Babalwa Lumko (HOPE Community Health Worker)

Babalwa Lumko has joined HOPE Cape Town in July 2007. She was born in Johannesburg and moved 1996 to the Western Cape.
Babalwa is 25 years old and mother to a son. She lives with her parents and her brothers and sisters in Mfuleni now.
She volunteered for Love Life in 2005 and consequently for Sothemba before becoming a HOPE Community Health Worker.

Mfuleni Clinic

This municipal and provincial clinic with 10 consulting rooms was built in 1989 employing 15 nursing sisters with a full-time doctor from Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 16:30 to treat the clients.  Nevertheless the waiting time to see a nursing sister is long.  Common illnesses like HIV, TB and teenage pregnancy are treated.  Daily this large facility receives approximately 350 patients. About 90 clients are tested for HIV per month. The clinic has a special programm for HIV infected mothers and their babies to avoid transferring HIV positive status to the infants ((about 70 babies are in this program).

Mfuleni Community

The area got its name from the Xohsa word meaning “by the river”. The Community is situated on the east bank of Kulis River (approximately 30 km from Cape Town). People started to settle there in the 1960’s. In the beginning it was a transit area for migrant labours.  The first houses were built in 1976 and most of the dwellings are houses or brick structures with a yard (44%), however, there are also informal shacks without water and electricity supply (36%).  . Today the population is about 23,00 people; the majority are black Africans (91%) largely from the Eastern Cape with the result Xhosa as the predominant language (84%), followed by Afrikaans (9%) and English (2%). The community has 2 high schools, 3 primary schools and 8 kindergardens with good attendence and a low drop out rate. Most people in Mfuleni have completed Grade 11 (42%). The unemployment rate is very high (over 40%) the employment focused in elementary occupations (42%). The average income of an Mfuleni household is in the R0-19,200/year range (78%). Other social issues in Mfuleni include theft, gangs, teenage pregnancy and drugs.

Statistics: City of Cape Town Census 2001 at http://www.capetown.gov.za/censusinfo/Census2001

township impression

Babalwa Lumko