Zanempilo is an NGO (non-government organisation) that delivers holistic primary health care services to disadvantaged peri-urban and rural communities in the Western Cape through the employment of full-time Community Health Workers, Community Rehabilitation Workers and HIV Lay Counsellors. Working with a range of service providers, we also strive to improve resources, access to information, and to influence policies that benefit the health of the communities served.
Our vision is an environment in which all communities take charge of their own health and enjoy full access to appropriate resources.
Our philosophy is to develop community participation in preventive, promotive, rehabilitative and limited curative health care through developing coordinated advocacy programmes, disseminating information, conducting research and mobilising communities. We believe in forming partnerships and networking with academic institutions, government, communities and other NGOs, and in exploring and implementing more innovative and effective intervention approaches that emerge out of ‘best practice’.
Zanempilo works primarily through community-based workers. Our CHWs, CRWs and HIV Lay Counsellors are all resident in the communities within which we work. Our programme aims to obtain recognition and sustainable finance for them from the public sector and provincial government.