In the mid-nineties HATW was looking to develop links with several rural mission hospitals in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa as the country was joyously moving with Nelson Mandela into the post-apartheid period. St Apollinaris hospital was especially in need of physiotherapists. Diana, who worked at Nevill Hall hospital in Abergavenny, travelled out with Melissa a colleague and together with Liz the medical superintendent they set up the hospital’s first physiotherapy department and supported a local nurse into physio training. This was one of the first in a successful series of co-operative projects we were able to undertake in the area.
Diana’s story
It was ten o’clock on a mid-November morning. I was already sweating profusely and struggling to explain the importance of exercise to a baffled looking patient. Half the ward was lying face down in the grass outside the hospital while others wandered round in regulation blue gowns with drip bags on their heads. This was definitely not the NHS and despite growing frustrations at my lack of Zulu, I never for a moment wished it was.
Ever since I can remember, I grew up with the sounds and stories of Africa recounted from my parents’ childhood memories. It seemed like a magical place and the longing to live and work there became stronger with each passing year. A modest poster requiring a physiotherapist in KwaZulu Natal catapulted me within months from dreams to reality. It was an answer to prayer.
St. Apollinaris is an old mission hospital set deep in the heart of South Africa. It serves an ever-expanding population in a 40 km square radius of maize fields, valleys and small hutted villages. The hospital itself holds 120 patients in an area designed for 40, but it extremely well run and maintained… With skill and resourcefulness, almost any medical emergency is dealt with. I soon learnt that this ability to adapt was not only useful but essential.
My remit was to do daily [physiotherapy] work within the hospital, to train nursing staff in basic rehabilitation skills… The enjoyment of the work was tempered at times by its tragedy: Trying to gently stretch the limbs of a deliberately burnt child; a dying AIDS patient; seeing the results of horrific domestic violence. Looking into their eyes, the language barrier no longer mattered.
As well as the hospital-based work, we also undertook an assessment of disability levels in the community. In an area the size of Wales, we were the only rehabilitation facility and this lack of care became evident in our findings. Despite this, it was perhaps my favourite part of our work. At the helm of a four-wheel drive truck, we would make our precarious way out to the surrounding villages and hold our makeshift clinics in huts, schools and churches. I loved being out on the road. It was on these days that I felt I really saw Africa, and the sense of freedom and joy I experienced was indescribable. … one was almost tricked into thinking life here idyllic. However, the oppression of women, the spread of AIDS and the sickening injustices of the first and third worlds living side by side, were all a constant reminder that this was not so.
I had been at St. Apollinaris for four months and knew it was part of my life forever. I had also been lucky enough to really live Africa and had come to know it as a challenging, vibrant continent full of great beauty and extremes. The memories and friendships I gained were second to none and God willing, will last a lifetime. There’s so much I haven’t said, but I think it’s now time to look to the future. Out of the whole trip, settling back down has been the hardest part and even now, months later, I have times of feeling lost. However, I feel deeply grateful to have had these experiences – the good and bad alike. At times, we all need to ask questions about where we’re going and uncomfortable as they may be, they are an essential weapon against apathy. I’ve been greatly challenged by my experience in more ways than I ever dreamed, and though what we did seemed so little, it was perhaps a small step on our united quest towards creating a better world.
