What does SANTA stand for?
SANTA stands for the South African National Tuberculosis Association.
According to Stats SA, TB is the top killer in South Africa, the country with the third highest incidence of TB in the world. First is China and then India. TB is highly contagious, and if undetected can spin out of control, affecting all sectors of the community. It is estimated that 80% of inhabitants in the Western Cape carry the TB bacteria.
TB is an airborne disease. This means when a TB infected person, who is not on treatment, talks, sings, coughs or sneezes the bacteria are spread. Anybody in the vicinity can then develop TB, even after months or years, as long as 20 to 30 years later. However, it is important to remember that a person who is on treatment is no longer infectious.
But, equally important: Every person who tests positive for TB and who is not on treatment, can infect 10 to 15 people. By diagnosing one person before he becomes actively ill and start treating him, 10 – 15 cases can be prevented.
Overstrand TB health workers visit, with home carers, patients on treatment and evaluate everyone in those houses, even friends who visit often, for TB symptoms. The Overstrand, a subdistrict of the Overberg, has a very high incidence of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR TB). This is very worrying.
But, the Overstrand is also the only subdistrict that is supported by an outside party, SANTA. Thanks to SANTA the Overstrand can still fight TB better than any of the other subdistricts. Eight of the clinic staff are paid by SANTA. Health budgets have been cut nationally, including that of the Western Cape. Vacant posts are being frozen. This scenario makes the support that the Overstrand receives from SANTA increasingly important.
The Hermanus branch of the South African National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA -NPO No 000-946) has been working for well over twenty years to reduce TB in the Overstrand.
The initiatives include providing 8 much-needed extra staff to assist the local clinics to improve the identification, treatment and education of patients.
SANTA Hermanus constantly strives to improve ways to make it easier for patients to understand the disease, like funding tablet computers and the production of video material in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
To help raise funds, and to give SANTA an identity in Hermanus, the organisation runs a second-hand bookshop, manned by volunteers. The shop, in a quaint building reminiscent of old Hermanus fishing cottages, in 2A Aberdeen Street, is attracting book lovers, and more and more people are donating large quantities of — sometimes valuable — books to help this worthy cause.
Alexis Holmes on her 8th birthday party on 26 September.
Selfless donation from young supporter
SANTA Hermanus received a very special donation all the way from Edinburgh in September. It came from Alexis Holmes (8), granddaughter of Chairman Sue Holmes.
“Some three years ago, about a month before Christmas, while on the phone to the kids, then 5-year-old Alexis saw the pile of wrapped presents in the background and wanted to know whose they were. I explained that those were Christmas presents for sick children,” says Sue.
“This year, while planning a party for her 8th birthday, Alexis told her mother that she had so many dolls and soft toys that she could not possibly name any new ones or love them all equally. So she decided that she was going to let her friends know that she would prefer money to any other presents for her birthday, and that she was going to donate it towards buying Christmas presents for sick children. SANTA received £100 (R2 400),” says proud grandmother Sue.
Stepping down after years of selfless service
Friday 31 March was a sad day for Valda Arendse. She was retiring after 18 years, of which 15 were with SANTA, of working with patients suffering from tuberculosis (TB). At 68 she had already postponed stepping down three years earlier when she reached the retirement age of 65.
“I could not face leaving my job, my patients, at that stage”, she said at the last meeting with colleagues at the Hermanus Provincial Hospital. “But today isn’t any easier”, she admitted, eyes brimming with tears.
Sister Anita Rust thanked Valda, renowned for her work in the community of Kleinmond, for her dedication while selflessly working not only by assisting patients to take their medicine, but also by following up on possible new cases by ensuring that those people who have been in contact with TB patients be screened. Sue Holmes, SANTA (South African National Tuberculosis Association) chairperson, paid tribute to Valda and her colleagues for the exceptional work they do in combating TB in the Overstrand. She added: “We at SANTA feel privileged to be associated with these special people. Paying their salaries, in the absence of Government funding, SANTA is helping to ensure that the fight against TB, a silent killer, is not lost.”
Valda, born and bred in Kleinmond, was married to Andrew Arendse, a building contractor equally well known and respected in the community. “The trauma of his death as a result of Covid in July 2020 is still difficult to deal with”, Valda admits. “Had he still been around I might not have found retiring so difficult. I have my two lovely children and five grandchildren, but they have their own lives. However, I won’t be sitting at home doing nothing. I will somehow find something to do, someone whom I could help in some way.”
Valda Arendse
Early Christmas Parties
Father Christmas paid an early visit to the Hermanus Day Care Centre (CDC) in Swartdam Road. Every year a Christmas party for children affected by tuberculosis (TB) is organised by the Hermanus branch of the South African National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA).
SANTA chairman Sue Holmes once again coordinated the donation of presents from the community to bring a little joy to kids suffering from this disease that is still alarmingly prevalent in the Overstrand.
More than 30 kids under the age of 5 each received a present Father Christmas, seated next to a Christmas tree in the Club Room. Bronwyn Strugnell once again turned the space into a wonderland. The kids, accompanied by a parent, each received a packet of treats, cooldrinks and sausage rolls. Children at clinics in Hawston, Stanford, Gansbaai and Kleinmond also received gifts at separate parties.
Dedicated members of staff at the clinic in Hermanus who help care for TB patients are, from left, Thumeka Magushana (15 years’ of service), Gukizwa Vanga and Maria Gallant.
Father Christmas with one of the little guests at the Hermanus party. This little one wasn’t too sure about trusting Father Christmas
Bronwyn Strugnell, part of the TB team in Hermanus, was responsible for the Christmas decorations and organising the eats and treats.
Enjoying the party at Gansbaai.
Enjoying the party at Gansbaai.
Spreading Christmas Joy
Sadly more than a hundred children under the age of five in the Overstrand are affected by tuberculosis (TB). To help bring some joy to these unfortunate little ones, some as young as three months, SANTA Hermanus will once again ensure that every one of them will receive a Christmas present.
The gifts will be handed to them at Christmas parties organised at clinics in Hermanus, Hawston, Stanford, Gansbaai and Kleinmond. “We were again overwhelmed by the generosity of the community,” says SANTA Hermanus Chairman Sue Holmes. “Even people who happened upon the process of wrapping of piles of donated gifts at our home, spontaneously made monetary donations towards SANTA’s cause. It is heartwarming to experience such goodwill in the true spirit of Christmas.”
Photo: SANTA Chairman Sue Holmes with some of the Christmas presents for children affected by TB.
World TB Day 24 March
THE WORLD’S DEADLIEST KILLER IS RIFE IN THE OVERSTRAND
World TB Day on 24 March marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch, a German physician and microbiologist, announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease. The theme of World TB Day 2022 is Invest to end TB. Save lives.
The Coronavirus has made people around the world aware of the consequences of a highly infectious disease. Yet, many people are still unaware that the world’s deadliest infectious killer, tuberculosis (TB) is rife in the Overstrand. It is therefore necessary to raise public awareness of the devastating consequences of TB.
Global efforts in the fight against TB have saved an estimated 66 million lives since 2000. However, Covid-19 has reversed years of progress made in the fight against TB. In 2020, for the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased.
TB is highly contagious, and if undetected can spin out of control, affecting all sectors of the community. It is estimated that 80% of inhabitants in the Western Cape carry the TB bacteria.
The devastation caused by TB, and especially when it develops into the multiple drug resistant (MDR) strain is heart breaking.
One case that came to SANTA’s is a young unmarried mother of two children, aged 12 and 5. She has no income, no home, and weighs 35 kg. With the support of SANTA Hermanus a food parcel was supplied to help her and her children survive. In the meantime the 5 year old contracted TB. The child will have to be admitted to Brewelskloof, specialised TB hospital near Worcester for the Cape Winelands (East) and Overberg districts in the Western Cape, for full MDR treatment for 12 months.
Throughout the year Overstrand TB health care workers of the Hermanus branch of SANTA (South African National Tuberculosis Association), with the help of home carers, oversee patients taking their medication, and do TB screening of all the exposed contacts at the source patient’s home. Even friends who visit often are screened for TB symptoms.
As a special effort to raise awareness on World TB Day, these health care workers will try to reach as many dwellings as possible through door-to-door screening and testing in TB hot spots in Hermanus, Kleinmond, Stanford and Gansbaai where TB had been detected over the past nine months.
From 24 March to 24 April TB screening at the entrance to clinics will be intensified. At schools Grade 6 and 7 will be informed of TB. Afterwards these learners will take part in a quiz with pens and pencil bags as prizes. A colouring competition is planned for after the school holiday, with primary schools of Stanford, Hawston and Mount Pleasant showing interest.
Sometimes patients do not seek treatment on time. There are many reasons for this: They might be too sick to walk to a clinic or they cannot afford to miss a day off work and put themselves at risk of not getting paid. Furthermore, the stigma still attached to TB kills people because many patients do not want to be seen at a TB or HIV clinic.
It is vitally important to make these house calls, because many people who are sick do not know that they have TB. The result can be devastating. TB is an airborne disease. This means when a TB infected person, who is not on treatment, talks, sings, coughs or sneezes the bacteria are spread. Anybody in the vicinity can then develop TB, even after months or years, as long as 20 to 30 years later. However, it is important to remember that a person who is on treatment is no longer infectious. But, equally important: Every person who tests positive for TB and who is not on treatment, can infect 10 to 15 people.
The Overstrand, a subdistrict of the Overberg, has a very high incidence of TB and multi-drug resistant TB (MDR TB). This is very worrying.
But, the Overstrand is also the only subdistrict that is supported by an outside party, SANTA. Thanks to SANTA the Overstrand can still fight harder against TB than any other subdistrict with limited resources.
SANTA Hermanus has been working for well over twenty years to reduce TB in the Overstrand. The initiatives include providing much-needed extra staff to assist the local clinics to improve the identification, treatment and education of patients. Eight TB health care workers are paid by SANTA. Patients defaulting on medication are visited at home.
SANTA Hermanus also strives to improve ways to make it easier for patients to understand the disease, funding tablet computers and the production of video material in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
“We at SANTA Hermanus believe that the Overstrand will soon return to having the best TB programme in the Overberg and Western Cape, before the Covid pandemic played havoc in so many spheres worldwide. We will continue to support the hard work done by dedicated health workers to combat this highly infectious killer disease in our subdistrict,” says SANTA chairman Sue Holmes.
Colleen Naudé
SANTA Hermanus
Communication
How can you help?
Bookshop
Donations of books to sell, as well as buying these books, are really making a huge difference. All the funds are used for local TB support.
Donations
Any donations for this worthy cause are very welcome. Please contact us for more information.
Support Events
Please keep an eye open for our fundraising events.
Get Involved
We always need volunteers to help us with events, in the bookshop and to support and visit TB patients. Please contact us today and start making a difference.