Operation Medical Hope 
A story of faith & hope,with Rotary support worldwide
The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been catastrophic in South Africa, particularly amongst poorer families at household level. The small town of Hout Bay on the South Africa coastline at the tip of Africa has been no exception.
South Africa has only an estimated 120,000 hospital beds in the public sector, a fact which has led the disease to be designated as a “homecare disease” in medical
terminology, thereby placing enormous strain and trauma upon poorer households who cannot afford transport and even greater pressure upon local clinical out-patient facilities, who are called upon to diagnose, treat and dispense to an massively enlarged TB and HIV/AIDS infected community.
The Rotary Club of Hout Bay has had in place a project named Operation Medical Hope for ten years now during which a number of breakthroughs have been achieved, particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS where, at last, ante-retrovirals are dispensed by government. However, whilst there remains no cure, more support is needed.
The emphasis in Operation Medical Hope is now moving from material support in the
form of medical supplies and additional facilities to homecare support with an awareness and realization of the nutritional needs of those on ARV programs in the community but too poor to afford even the basics of a proper diet for themselves, or sadly, their children.
The ever-increasing implications of the disease upon the social fabric of human settlements poses a national threat to food security in South Africa and
these nutritional problems lead both to the high incidence of TB, now becoming a major problem in poor black townships, coupled with the onset of AIDS at an earlier age. In Hout Bay there is the spectre of a growing number of orphans - some with the disease carried through from the mother at womb.
Operation Medical Hope is a separate fund formed by Rotary Club of Hout Bay to deal with health issues in the local community. Much of this effort is specifically aimed to support local health authorities in the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly where such limited community services are both underfunded and understaffed to combat the disease. Rotary provides an important link with the clinical staff in the field and a source of funds to bolster services, thus bringing greater help to those suffering from the virus in poorer areas.
Initially, additional buildings were provided by Rotary to the local clinics in
Hout Bay for HIV/AIDS counseling and TB treatment, Rotarians themselves becoming involved in the construction using funding provided by Rotary Club of Coolamon in Australia and Rotary Club of Kirkland, USA and their own funds.
Below, Main Road Clinic, Hout Bay, the centre for HIV/AIDS and TB, now known as "Coolamon House", one of two clinics in Hout Bay supported by Rotary Club of Hout Bay.
Subsequently much in the way of TB and general clinic equipment and supplies have now been supplied, again with funds from Rotary Coolamon, Rotary Club of Tokyo and Rotary International, plus of course Rotary Club of Hout Bay matching rand for rand the input with local fundraising.
Hout Bay is, sadly, the home for two “hotspots” in the Cape Peninsula where HIV/AIDS and its shadow disease, TB, is particularly prevalent. Firstly, there is the
sprawling shanty township of Imizamo Yethu, with an estimated population of 30,000 served by Hout Bay’s Main Road Clinic staffed by only fourteen people under Sister Esther Carolus.
This township comprises mainly black folk pouring in from the rural areas of South Africa, complemented by refugees from other parts of Africa such as the DRC, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
The second clinic is situated in the Hangberg area of Hout Bay, a 
smaller clinical service which handles again the consequences of TB and HIV/AIDS amongst the poorer traditional fishing community existing
alongside a very much reduced fishing industry in the Hout Bay harbor area.
In total, mainly in the Imizamo Yethu area, Hout Bay has some I,500 terminally ill with AIDS, an unknown number of HIV positive persons with a
growing proportion ARV medication and, unfortunately, a growing TB component which can be considered mainly as a side-effect of the HIV/AIDS problem.
Operation Medical Hope has now matured into a permanent feature of Rotary Club of Hout Bay activities. Rotary Club of Coolamon in Australia has, with a visiting team of Australian Rotarians, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as part of a fund raising scheme for the Main Road clinic, now known as “Coolamon House”.
Joining the climbing team was local resident of Imizamo Yethu, Anna Khuzwayo, 
herself a social worker. Rotary Club of Coolamon, under its project leader John Glassford, has now announced his club’s intentions to climb the “Mountains of the Moon”, or Ruwenzori Mountains, again in aid of funds for Operation Medical Hope.
Like most sucessful Rotary projects, Operation Medical Hope works through grass roots organisations
and professionals operating in the field, in this case through the Hout Bay Health Forum, a body comprising representatives of the City of Cape Town Health department; its professional clinical nursing staff; representatives of TB Care, who manage and give training to homecare teams into poorer areas; groups such as the Monwabisi Homecare Group who reach HIV/AIDS families.
Also represented on the Hout Bay Health Forum are various child welfare groups; professional local doctors giving of their time and food kitchen and feeding groups.
Rotary Club of Hout Bay’s current appeal is for funds to finance the purchase of nutritional food parcels, specifically to be “prescribed” by clinic staff and doctors for HIV positive
persons from disadvantaged and poor households where the lack of nutrition makes the supply HIV/AIDS medicines ineffective and where the immune system cannot recover through lack of proper food and accommodation harboring disease.
A campaign to distribute “comfort boxes” under the direction of medical staff and backed by Rotary Club of Hout Bay (under past president Patrick McLaughlin (patrick@yebo.co.za. - picture below) is currently being launched and funds can be directed to this rewarding and fully working scheme to:
Rotary Cub of Hout Bay
First National Bank
Branch 204009 (Hout Bay)
Current Account 53452281009 
SWIFT Code: FIRNZAJJ
Put reference: Operation Medical Hope
