Hermanus

Corita Marchall (HOPE Community Health Worker)

Corita Marchall was born in Hermanus and has worked for HOPE since mid 2004.  She has training in homecare, first aid, drug rehabilitation, and a course on cancer.  Previous experience working for 14 years as a volunteer looking after elderly people and cancer patients, taking care of their medications and general health, she is well qualified for the Community Health Worker position.  In the clinic, Corita does pre-test counseling and assists the medical staff.  After her day in the clinic, she does home visits to HIV positive and sick patients, with many patients phoning her after hours for advice.  She is a lay minister, and a member of the Red Cross, the HIV Committee and the Health Committee.

Hermanus Clinic

The clinic is Hermanus is small, but located next to a much larger hospital.  With only 3 sisters (professional nurses), and one doctor, the clinic specializes in HIV, ARVs, and TB.  The 200 people coming to the clinic in Hermanus daily are often very sick and are likely to have TB or HIV, the two most common illnesses in the area.  About 40 people are tested for HIV in a month, and the infection rate is usually about 1 in 3.

Hermanus Community

Hermanus has a population of about 48,400 people and is a very popular place for whale watching during the southern winter and spring.  It is well a well-developed, wealthy, mostly white community. However, like many communities in the Western Cape, there are very poor areas on the outskirts of the town consisting of mostly colored and black African people from the Eastern Cape and surrounding farming areas.  In these areas, housing is a mix of government and informal housing with 10-15 people living in each small home or shack.  There is a high drop out rate in the schools due to drug use and teenage pregnancy and high crime rates plague the poorer areas.

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

Hermanus at its best

at the clinic

Corita