Goodwood

Rochelle Paka (HOPE Community Health Worker)

Rochelle Paka was born and grew up in Mitchell’s Plain. She started working as a HOPE Community Health Worker in April 2008. Rochelle has been dreaming of becoming a doctor ever since she was a little girl. After matriculating she even enrolled at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to study medicine. However, due to severe family problems at that time she could never take up her studies. HOPE has given her a second chance to work in the medical field and she looks forward to her day in the clinic where she helps in the reception, performs pre-HIV test counseling and does home visits for HIV positive people. Coming from a previously disadvantaged community herself, she feels that she can relate very well to the working poor and unemployed people that she gets in contact with during the home visits. In her free time, Rochelle likes to spend time with her family, go to church and take part in fun walks for a good cause.

Goodwood Clinic

The clinic in Goodwood is a dual building with a provincial day hospital on one side and a city clinic on the other.   Priscilla works on the city side, which specializes in STIs and TB.  The clinic handles about 400 clients a day, with about 300 getting tested for HIV/month.  There is always at least one person testing HIV positive/week, but the rate us usually higher.  The staff includes 4 sisters (professional nurses) in the clinic from 7:00-4:30 Monday to Friday.  Common issues handled in the clinic are schizophrenia, anxiety, sick babies, hypertension, TB, HIV, and STIs.

Goodwood Community

Goodwood was a colored area before the apartheid years becoming a white only zone during the struggle.  Today, its is still 75% white, with 19% colored and 5% black African.  The area is well developed and relatively wealthy with the majority of households having an annual income in the R 76,801 – 307,200 range and an unemployment rate of only 7.3%.  There are many schools in the area and attendance is high. More recently drugs have become an issue for youth in addition to teenage pregnancies and TOPs (Termination of Pregnancy) among young teenagers.  The high number of migrant workers from the Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu Natal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the area live in the informal shack settlements.  In these areas, the levels of TB and HIV are higher. 

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

clinic entrance