Last week the clinics were visited by representatives of the Discovery Trust Fund. They are our biggest funder. It was very encouraging that they were once again very moved and impressed by the work we do. We are used to it and so it is very refreshing to have visitors who are deeply moved by the plight of the farm labourers, and by the compassionate way in which they are treated in our clinic, express this to us.

It sort of makes us look at the whole situation with new eyes again ... like when we first starting visiting the farms in March 2000. To celebrate the visit they paid for us to give "party packs" to all the children and patients. They also gave us a foetal Doppler (gadget to listen to the foetal heart beat through the abdominal wall) as a gift to use in the clinics.

You may have seen on the news that all the public servants in South Africa are on strike. This includes many of the nurses and some of the doctors. This has meant that we have been seeing extremely ill people in the clinic on the campus. And the hardest part of all that we were unable to refer them to hospital. So we would consult with a doctor who supports us here at the clinic, and then decide what the best treatment is and send them home.

One or two were cases that the skeleton staff at hospital were willing to see but the family of the patients were reluctant to take them there. They said nobody would feed them, wash them and ensure that they got their medicine. I think they showed great insight because that is very likely what would have happened. None the less it was a challenging week for us.

Jenny Holtzhausen