Thusanang Care Group (Thusanang) is non-profit community-based organization (CBO) that helps to empower the local community with health information, skills, and small business opportunities. It is located in the community of Kgubetswana, which is overshadowed by the touristy town of Clarens in Thabo Mofutsanyana district. Thusanang is well known to the community. Locals come to the CBO to buy food or enjoy a meal which Thusanang sells to support its sustainability.
Thusanang also provides and delivers chronic medication for members of the Kgubetswana community. Rose Mashinini, programme coordinator at Right to Care, explains that, “We identified this popular CBO as an ideal out-of-facility medicine pick-up point for patients from Itumeleng Clinic, which is a three kilometer walk from the community. As well as being closer than the clinic, Thusanang is helping to avert HIV stigma. A patient may go to Thusanang to buy a meal or to pick up their treatment. It is our best-performing pick-up point in the Dihlabeng sub-district.”
Lerato Lenele (31) is one of over 200 people who collect their antiretroviral treatment (ART) from Thusanang. She started treatment ten years ago and has taken it daily even since. “Itumeleng Clinic closes at 4p.m. but I work late as a cleaner in the town. So collecting my ART from Thusanang is much easier for me because it only closes around 6p.m. I collect it after work on my way home,” she says. Lenele was virally suppressed before she had her first child. Her daughter, now eight years old, was born HIV-free.
Lucas Bukhali is one of Thusanang’s founders. “Right to Care assisted us in becoming a pick-up point and set up systems with the Department of Health. All medicine parcels are scanned as they are delivered and when a patient collects. Right to Care helps us with ongoing assessments and improvements to maintain our registration. They also help with our monthly invoices to the Department of Health that pays us as an external pick-up point, which is an additional source of income for Thusanang.”
Bukhali follows up with clients who don’t collect their medicine, liaises with the clinic to flag concerns around clients’ difficulty with treatment and supports linkage to other social services.
Mashinini adds, “Right to Care works with all the health facilities in Thabo Mofutsanyane to identify convenient medicine pick-up points. We also identify clients who are virally suppressed so they can be decanted from facilities to nearby pick-up points. CBOs like Thusanang support the decanting strategy and our goal to promote adherence and retention in care.”
At the Itumeleng Clinic, there are 1,288 patients on ART. Once patients have the option to collect their treatment from a community pick-up point, they have a choice of different CBOs to choose from. Some 99 percent of decanted patients prefer to collect their chronic medicine at Thusanang, especially men who usually feel more comfortable collecting their medicine outside of the clinic.
Thabo Mofutsanyane district is one of few districts in South Africa that is close to reaching the global UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for HIV epidemic control. The district had achieved 96-90-88 by December 2023. Right to Care partners with the Department of Health to advance HIV epidemic control efforts in the district with support from the US Agency for International Development.
