Six years ago Mpho Sebanyoni quit her job as a nurse in her local hospital 70 kilometres from Pretoria to become one of South Africa's most
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It was a new concept then, home-based care," says
Mpho (pronounced 'MmPo'). She is over here on a tour - thanks to the Wiltshire-based
charity Hope and Homes - to publicise her work and to celebrate a Hero
of the Month award in the September issue of Marie Claire magazine. She's
also just discovered that she's won the 'Woman of the Year' health award
back home in South Africa.
"I'm on mobile holiday!" laughs Mpho. She usually gets 20-30
calls a day from people she visits back home. "Through the night
too. 'Ring ring,' and a voice saying 'It's very urgent - I need treatment,'
or 'I need to disclose, and wanted to talk'. Another
Photos: Nikki Kastner
common one is: 'I didn't sleep well, I dreamt my grandmother
was alive...does this mean I'm going to die?'..."
In Mpho's own personal experience, she says: "Many
of my extended family have died, though no-one close. But some Saturdays
I attend five funerals."
She now works from her own care centre, the Moretele Sunrise Hospice in
Temba, in the north of South Africa about 70km from Pretoria.
After three years of pioneering home-based voluntary work in nearby villages
badly affected by HIV and Aids, the South African Department of Health
decided to help support her, as did the High Commission too. Then the
Hope and Homes Charity gave her a £10,000 grant for
her work with
families and orphans. The Moretele Sunrise Hospice can now afford equipment like wheelchairs and medical supplies, and pay its counsellors.
