User:Marcela Zabala/Veronica Khosa

Veronica Khosa A true example of compassion and social entrepreneurship. Founder of Tateni Home Care Services to provide at-home care giving and counseling to patients and family members Veronica Khosa was born in 1937 and was raised by her grandmother on a farm in the province now called Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Khosa began her career as a practicing nurse and mid-wife before turning her focus to combating the AIDS epidemic in 1991. In 1995 Khosa, a divorced grandmother living in the country with mass redundancy, relinquished her coveted job with the Pretoria City Council (where she taught community health to medical students for several years), accepted a reduced pensions, set aside one-half of her retirement package for her old age, and reserved the other half to do home care in Mamelodi. One month later, Tateni Home Care Services opened its doors our of the tin shed in the vacant lot in Khosa’s home town. This out of two adverse situations: increasing unemployment among young people and the growing need for people to be cared for at home. The guiding mission of Tateni – a Nguni word, which roughly translates to the encouragement of a mother for a child learning to walk – is to empower and educate care-givers in the essential skills necessary for basic patient care. Using a traveling team of retired nurses, Tateni trains members of rural communities in the essential skills of at-home care. These community workers, in turn, are expected to share their knowledge with patients and family members. Each community is also supported by an extended group of medical professionals that can provide necessary medications, occupational and physical therapy and bereavement counseling. Ever since, there have been several organizations helping Tateni. Together fighting AIDS in Africa.