News

We get TB at our clinics!

Six simple interventions are at the heart of how clinics can be part of turning the tide on TB infection. By following a checklist of good practice, clinics can be safer for patients and staff. However most clinics are failing to implement enough of these measures, putting people at risk of getting TB whilst waiting at the clinic.

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Treat us better if you want us to keep coming back!

People who miss appointments or stop taking their treatment often report being treated badly by healthcare workers when they return to health facilities. This fear of being reprimanded discourages people from going back to the clinic to seek support and receive their treatment.

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Patients wait in a long queue in the morning to enter Manzini Clinic in Mpumalanga.

Getting people out of the clinic can support HIV treatment adherence

The growing crisis in many of South Africa’s clinics has reached a point where patient care is being compromised and with it deepening worry that people living with HIV are being pushed out of treatment. Allowing PLHIV to collect their medication refills outside of the clinic can improve this experience and reduce the risk of people disengaging from care.

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Ritshidze project publicly releases community-led monitoring tools & guidelines

The Ritshidze project today released a new website with resource toolkits on how it uses community-led monitoring to improve the quality of HIV and TB service delivery. Ritshidze — one of the most extensive community-led clinic monitoring systems — was developed by networks of People Living with HIV in South Africa to hold government and aid agencies to account to fix our broken public healthcare system.

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Learning the Ritshidze model

During our Ritshidze training we gave communities the tools and techniques to monitor the quality of HIV, TB and other health services provided at clinics and quickly escalate problems to decision makers at clinic and district levels in order to advocate for change.

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Community-generated solutions at Daveyton East Clinic

In September 2020 the Ritshidze Project held a community dialogue event in Daveyton to hear from patients themselves. This came as Ritshidze community monitors were increasingly hearing from patients about their challenges with medicine stockouts, being repeatedly given ‘short-scripts’, and not being communicated with about their medicines and treatments.

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The People’s COP20

The People’s COP20 was released today by people living with HIV and activists at a community meeting where public healthcare users shared their experiences of accessing HIV and other health services in public clinics with U.S Ambassador Deborah Birx.

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About RITSHIDZE

“Ritshidze” — meaning “Saving Our Lives” in TshiVenda — has been developed by people living with HIV and activists to hold the South African government and aid agencies accountable to improve overall HIV and TB service delivery.

Partner organisations include the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the National Association of People Living with HIV (NAPWA), Positive Action Campaign, Positive Women’s Network (PWN) and the South African Network of Religious Leaders Living with and affected by HIV/AIDS (SANERELA+)—in alliance with Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

CLICK HERE to read more and see where we work.