Mount Sinai Centre grew from one nurse’s dream

CHRISTALLINE Vega-Biart, the founder of Mount Sinai Centre in Katutura, is a remarkable woman with a huge heart for the children living in the impoverished communities surrounding Katutura affected or infected by HIV-AIDS.

In 2001 she was working as a paediatric nurse in the Katutura State Hospital when she noticed that the mothers and children coming to the hospital were always hungry. Being a nurse she thought that it was her responsibility to give whatever food she could spare and so she started filling a small cupboard at the hospital with food which she shared with the most needy mothers. In 2003 the hospital introduced antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to the mothers and she was the first nurse who was taught and did the data capturing and record keeping of each ARV patient. She also learned that mothers who were HIV positive should not breastfeed their babies and that she had to do more for the children. In 2005 she registered as an NGO but was still helping the babies and mothers from her cupboard at the hospital. She applied for more space at the hospital from where she could feed the mothers but she was not successful in her application, so she decided to move the whole operation to her house in Khomasdal. At this time she had to feed 60 children who were on ARVs and 40 children who needed milk because their mothers were HIV positive and could not breastfeed.’The mothers who mostly live in the informal settlements surrounding Katutura walked from their shack to my house to receive their monthly food or milk,’ Vega-Biart says. Eventually she was feeding 290 children. Once a month the mothers came to her house and fetched their food parcels or milk formula. The babies were weighed and received a medical check-up, all their information was kept in a detailed file and if there were any complications they were referred to the hospital. This she all financed from her and her husband’s salaries, with a little help from a church and some community members. Her house and garage were transformed and workshops, training sessions and counselling sessions were held there.She taught 30 HIV-positive women small business skills so that they could become self-sufficient. ‘Mount Sinai’s aim is to train the mothers so that they can help themselves and don’t need to rely on help forever,’ she says.In 2007 Vega-Biart resigned from nursing, as running Mount Sinai and working had become too much to handle. Her husband kept the family going with his salary and she could concentrate on her work with the children and mothers.In 2008 tragedy struck when he died of a heart attack. The next three years were extremely difficult for her and her family. Running the centre and caring for her own children without a proper income proved to be more and more difficult.This is when Henk Mudge stepped in and supported the project financially. ‘I am very grateful to them and do not know what I would have done without their help,’ says Vega-Biart.Eventually she received an erf from the City of Windhoek and the Spanish Embassy built the first phase of Mount Sinai, which finally opened in 2009.’Without the help of all these people I could not do what I am supposed to do and that is to help care and look after the babies and to ensure that healthy babies stay negative as they are our future.’ Things are beginning to up, as in December last year she started to nurse again and can now support her family again. ‘I am behind with everything but as soon as everything is paid up I can once again plough back into the community,’ she says confidently.Mount Sinai Centre has a small vegetable garden where the older children and mothers are taught to grow their own vegetables. They also have a beadwork and sowing project for the mothers as well as the Katutura Soap Project. Here the women are taught how to make soap using only olive oil. The soap is handmade and comes in all shapes and sizes and can be bought at the craft centre. Mahangu is added to some soaps, making them a natural scrub.These are just some of the training opportunities the centre offers to the mothers to make them self-sufficient.Every day is a struggle to ensure that there is enough food and milk for the children and babies, but this does not deter Vega-Biart from going to her nursing job each day and then going to the centre to look after the 116 children receiving food and 68 babies who need milk daily. She has one goal, which is to keep healthy babies healthy, and to keep children on ARVs as healthy as possible. She dreams of the completion of the next two phases of the project, which would include boy’s and girl’s living quarters, a kitchen and flats that could be rented out to generate income for the project.’My dream is that one day the children and babies we have helped will return and plough back and help other children and babies in need,’ says Vega-Biart.

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