Home care

• visiting
• counseling
• caring for families in their homes

The Shelter

• a temporary refuge for families needing support

Support groups

• training and enabling women to earn an income from their homes
• familie camps

Home Care

The Home Based Care project aims to enable HIV-affected families and the wider community to take care of one another. It is against the backdrop of socio-economic problems often exacerbated by HIV infection that Siam-Care steps in with its care team of nurses, social workers and counsellors. Each family is visited at least once a month, but it may be up to twice a week according to their needs. Thus, by building long-term relationships, they can provide for many of the people’s needs:

• Practical Needs:
  Siam-Care will provide clothing, household items, milk powder for babies and food to those who cannot afford these basic necessities.
• Emotional Needs:
  These are provided for by building friendships and through counselling. There are also various groups which are organised to provide an opportunity for all of those with whom Siam-Care are involved to meet each other, and providing peer support. The workers also address with parents who are HIV-infected what the future will hold for their children and how they will be cared for.
• Social Needs:
  Job training and advice is offered, and also extensive work is done with the families and neighbours of those who are ill in order that they might accept and support each other. This can be especially difficult in the Bangkok area as there does not exist the same community structures as in the northeast.
• Medical Needs:
  Siam-Care provides vitamins, nutritional advice and help with hospital expenses. Nursing care is also provided in the homes of those who are sick; primarily however, relatives and the wider community are trained to provide that care whilst equipping them practically with items such as bedpans and anti-bedsore mattresses. Siam-Care also run various clinics to provide more specialised support. These include a Tuberculosis follow-up clinic, woman’s hygiene clinic and a PCP-prevention clinic (one of the main causes of death amongst those who are HIV-infected).
• Spiritual Needs:
  The Christian staff will pray and share Bible scripture with families who request this. Many have found new peace and hope in desperate situations. Bible studies are also run in the shelter.

Shelter

The Shelter provides refuge for those without friends or family who are in need of support, in facing the reality of extreme poverty and sickness. It provides a temporary place for families who meet strict criteria as being in particular need, most typically:

• Single pregnant women or mothers with newborns. Those are often women who are working on the construction sites up until very close to their time of delivery. Once they stop work then they may no longer live on the site. The housing on the site is usually just a corrugated iron hut in one of the unfinished buildings; an inappropriate setting for new mothers. The shelter provides a short-term solution while the mothers can plan for their futures and the baby’s.
• Mothers caring for a sick child or husband – sometimes people have moved into the cities in order to be close to a hospital and medical care. However this often leaves them in a very vulnerable situation.
• Women who have recently lost their husband or child – this may be becoming a widow due to aids or husbands may have been imprisoned. The shelter provides them with time and emotional support to start rebuilding their lives.
• Mothers who are weak and unable to work – these women are too ill to support their families anymore so a shelter and nursing care is provided for them.

The shelter can house 6-8 families and is regularly visited by the Siam-Care care team providing similar care to that in the Home Based Care project. The shelter runs like a family unit; the families do everything themselves, as if it was their own home. This means that there is almost always someone in the shelter who is strong enough to go shopping and do the cooking when others are too ill. The women are also given the opportunity to make crafts in order to earn a small income. The shelter provides enormous peer support and a wealth of experience from those who are at different stages of illness or caring for their relatives.

Support Groups

These are all aimed at: ‘creating an atmosphere where peer support is possible, educating and enabling participants to improve their own lives.’

In Bangkok:

Women’s Group: The group meets every Thursday and is run by HIV infected women themselves. The main focus of this group is supporting each other, visiting when one of them is in hospital and also discussing issues related to living with hiv. As well as providing specialist education about particular issues Siam-Care also works to support them financially through equipping the women to earn an income through craft projects using unique Thai paper, fabrics and flowers. By doing this the women can earn an income while they stay at the Siam-Care shelter, or at home whilst caring for their sick family members, or because they are too weak to go out and work themselves.
Interested in buying or helping to sell crafts in your area? Please let us know.

Men’s Groups: There is now a group that meets specifically for the men in Bangkok who are affected by hiv, whether it is themselves or family members. The group meets once a month to discuss the issues they face and to enable the men to help each other through visits and support. This has arisen out of the need to raise awareness of the problem of HIV and primarily acts as a vital means of support for the many men who face such issues.

In Mukdahan:

Siam-Care has helped the local people set up and run an information centre in the northeast to provide vital support for those affected in this region, especially in the out of farming season when there are few jobs available. The centre acts as a base where there are opportunities for the women to earn income through sewing and craft projects.

Focus Group: As workers visit families, they seek to identify particular issues which will then be discussed and taught about at a focus group. The group meets once a month and those families for whom the issue is relevant are invited accordingly. There are usually about 30 families who attend, childcare being provided by volunteers. The issues that are discussed range from health care, such as Tuberculosis, skincare and hygiene, to social issues, e.g. jobs, money and responsibilities.

Annual Family Camp: This is three days away for all the families Siam-Care looks after and offers care and support to throughout the year. It provides an extended time for education, discussions and for them to get to know each other. It enables greater peer support and there is also an educational element in the provision of updated information on relevant issues, such as treatments for Aids related illnesses or the fakes that have appeared on the market. Small group sessions are also run and have become particularly important to the families. These are specifically aimed at a particular group, such as men, widows or relatives. In these there is open discussion about their situations so they can provide support for each other, there is also input from Siam-Care staff in encouraging discussions about behaviour and responsibilities. Children join one of the Power Kids Camps.

Power Kids Camps: These provide a chance for the children to deal with the many difficulties they face, both emotional and practical.
The children do extra classes in English, art and sport and most importantly, they have fun! Many of the children have known each other for a long time and this creates peer support, even as their personal situations may have changed. The children also take part in group work aimed at their age group, including classes discussing responsibilities and life skills.