Don’t expect to get preferential treatment at Bellville’s newest health facility.
Here people who live on the street are the priority.
“We just want to give a dignified service to people regardless of their status,” Perpetua Mamvura, project manager at the Tygerberg Hospice Trust, said on Friday at the launch of the trust’s Wellness Hub.
“It’s a place for healing and not discrimination. I want this place to speak (of) home because they are homeless. I want it to speak dignity and a sense of belonging,” she says.
Last Friday, numerous organisations gathered at the Shofar Bellville Urban church premises in Dirkie Uys Street where The Wellness Hub was formally launched. The facility is in a shipping container behind the church.
Free
The hub, which targets mainly homeless people but is open to all, will offer free services, including wound care, pap smears, diabetic foot screenings, hypertension and TB screenings, HIV and Aids testing, as well as counselling. Patients will be referred to the Reed Street Clinic if more specialist care is needed. Specimens will also be processed via the clinic.
Mamvura explained the idea of the facility came from one of the regular meetings held by different organisations that work with the street people in the area close to Bellville’s CBD.
The idea was a hub that would provide the services most often needed by street people – many who often don’t go for any care. Organisations and shelters were excited about the idea, but the team initially struggled with a place to host it. Mamvura then approached Danica Scott, ministry director of Shofar Bellville Urban, about the idea and the possibility of using their premises for the hub. Most of Shofar Urban’s congregants are street people and the area gets high foot traffic. Within days, Scott had the church’s permission and the planning could start in all earnest.
Cross-referral
Besides providing basic healthcare, the hub will also serve as a place where street people can be referred to other specialist organisations where they can get help for addiction or to get off the street, like MES, the Voortrekker Road Corridor Improvement District, Boston CID and Inceba Projects NPO. Shelters like Elim are also involved. These specialist organisations will also refer people to the hub, if neccesary.
Funding is provided by the Department of Health. Four qualified nurses work in shifts at the hub, which will be open for two days a week.
The hub will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 09:00 to 15:00. It’s located behind Shofar Urban Church in Dirkie Uys Street.
