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  • Title: The Ithuseng Health Association: an innovative community response to rural poverty.
    Author: Tooley D.
    Journal: Prog Rep Health Dev South Afr; 1990; ():17-24. PubMed ID: 12284201.
    Abstract:
    An effort to address the poverty of rural blacks in South Africa, the Ithuseng Community Association in the township Lenyenye provides a national model for community development. For the past 40 years, discriminatory laws have relegated the majority of the black population of South Africa to agriculturally and economically destitute homelands. Poverty and its consequences are readily apparent. For example, 50% of all children in the homelands suffer from malnutrition. More than 10 years ago, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele was exiled to Lenyenye for her anti- apartheid activities. There she founded Ithuseng, an organization that takes a holistic approach to development. The association provides health services, child care facilities, nutrition programs, income generating cooperative enterprises, literacy training, and education programs to a population of about 120,000. The association operates from a building that contains a health center, a library, and a meeting hall. To serve the 30 villages in the township, the association has trained village health workers (VHWs) who serve as community health providers and health educators. Besides attending to the health of the villagers, the VHWs also attend to the socioeconomic conditions of the people. VHWs have also participated in national conferences sponsored by the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network, thereby contributing to national discussions on health care. Although so far Ithuseng has operated on private funds, it has become clear that such community development projects will require state funding in order to continue operating. Political change is now taking place in South Africa. Because the government lacks credibility within the black community. Ithuseng could begin serving as a vehicle for rural development in a more democratic nation.
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