KwaZulu-Natal Women in Business

Glenda Algie and Candice Turnbull with the bears purchased for the children at iThemba Lethu.

REDMOND, Wash. -- Glenda Algie felt she was destined for a tasteful career in the culinary arts. She craved the enticements and just desserts of corporate employment, as a marketing manager for a food manufacturer. However, she could not foresee that her career would take an organic turn: to breast milk. And not her own.

Glenda is indeed a manager for a specialized food manufacturing operation serving a specific consumer clientele: newborn babes. Again, not her own.

Thirty-five-years-old, single and childless, Glenda is surrounded by babies and lactating mothers. She works at the iThemba Lethu Breast Milk Bank. Seed funded by UNICEF, this priceless bank in South Africa deals in a commodity that is more precious than gold. It accepts deposits of donated, immunity-rich breast milk. Workers withdraw the milk to feed to babies who will likely struggle with viruses and bacteria the rest of their lives.

They are AIDS orphans.

“I love children,” relates Glenda from Redmond where she is visiting friends. “The breast milk bank continues to amaze me as I see the health and well being of babies in our care, literally improve before my own eyes!”

Glenda began volunteering with iThemba Lethu as a caregiver for babies in November 2000 when the breast milk bank opened. Now, she is responsible for implementing two main programs: HIV Prevention and Family Integration.

The goals of this first-of-its-kind bank are to nurture HIV babies or those orphaned by HIV/AIDS infected mothers, then find adoptive parents.

Easy to say, perhaps difficult to accomplish in sub-Saharan Africa, documented by various health organizations to have the highest percentage of all people on the planet living with HIV.

Dr. Liesl Roone

Dr. Liesl Roone and her family. In Liesel's arms is an HIV/AIDS orphan the Roones adopted.

Compassionate donors like Dr. Liesl Roone provide hope for this seemingly overwhelming mission. While expressing milk for her own preterm baby, Dr. Roone built up an extra supply which she donated to iThemba Lethu. In six months time, she donated almost 20 liters of milk, receiving no compensation. Ultimately, her family adopted an HIV/AIDS orphan. She proceeded to breast feed him, along with her own newborn.

iThemba Lethu recruits other donors through health specialists, clinics, advertisements and word of mouth. Once lactating mothers are recruited, iThemba Lethu workers visit them in their homes to perform health and lifestyle screenings. The mothers are given bottles to fill and freeze. The bottles are then collected, pasteurized and refrozen until they are needed for the babies in crisis. The center needs about one liter of milk a day for each of six babies they care for.

Glenda Algie

"Baby S" was born HIV positive.

“Baby S” was one such newborn. Doctors diagnosed both his mother and grandmother with full-blown AIDS. His mother died before she could give permission for her son to be adopted. He was not even a month old. Tests proved that “Baby S” was HIV positive.

When he arrived at iThemba Lethu, “he was a bundle of skin and bones. He had malnutrition, scabies, and tuberculosis, was in respiratory distress and weighed only three kilograms (six-and-a-half pounds),” says Glenda. He was started on tuberculosis treatment, “... received lots of love and was fed with pasteurized breast milk ... until he was 14 months old.”

“Baby S” is now in foster care with “a loving family who are thrilled to have him in their care.... he is flourishing,” says Glenda.

Glenda Algie

More than a year later, "Baby S" is flourishing.

“Each story is very special, each child is incredibly precious. What has touched me most has been to see these babies adopted into loving, wonderful homes,” relates Penny Reimers, a nurse, midwife, and Lactation Consultant at iThemba Lethu since 2002. “It is the most worthwhile and fulfilling work I have ever done in my life. It is exciting and rewarding to see these sick babies transform before our eyes once they start with the breast milk.”

On this World AIDS Day, December 1, health authorities from around the world are in South Africa, which the UN estimates have 5.7 million people living with AIDS. That is roughly ten times the population of Seattle.

“Our country is in crisis,” says Glenda. “When you look at the statistics, it is unbelievable that so many children are dying unnecessarily.” 

The facts are almost mind numbing, nearly too big to comprehend. But nurturing one baby--one life, at a time-- is not.

“The idea is not to expand our home (iThemba Lethu) beyond six babies. We want it to remain a home with quality care, love, and quality nutrition (breast milk). Our vision is rather to see many more community-based breast milk banks starting up,” says Glenda.