Komani turns the corner
31.12.69
KOMANI Psychiatric Hospital in Queenstown has undergone a major turnaround, boosting staff and patient morale at the facility.
The change follows a Daily Dispatch exposé which revealed the inhumane treatment patients were subjected to at the facility.
In July this year, the Dispatch revealed how the hospital was plagued by human rights violations and mismanagement and mentally ill patients were made to sleep on thin sponge mattresses on the floor.
However, conditions have improved greatly. Twelve plasma TVs have been installed in wards and an additional six fridges, 20 microwave ovens, 20 urns and four leather lounge suites for visiting rooms have been bought.
A wall unit has been built in the main kitchen, and new gas and electric stoves have been fitted.
Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana, who visited the facility yesterday with the media, did a brief tour through the wards and was impressed with so much progress made in such a short space of time.
Source: Daily Dispatch Online
Daily bread - the inside story
31.12.69
In a small and relatively conservative Greek village,
especially when your Greek isn't up to scratch, it probably
doesn't pay to tell everyone you meet that you're spending the
night with the baker.
At least, that's what my husband explains to me when he hears
what I've been doing.
But nothing can contain my excitement. After 25 years of
visiting Leonidion, a remote village on the southeast coast
of the Peloponnese, I've finally plucked up the courage to
ask Philipos-the-baker if I can take a peek out the back
while he's working - and he's said "yes".
Which is how I come to be cycling, at three in the morning,
from my flat in the middle of the market gardens to the
village 4km away.
An almost-full moon is lighting up the potholed road and a
few roosters, having seized the wrong end of the stick, are
prematurely announcing dawn. The heady scent of orange
blossom pervades the warm air and a swarm of fireflies is
performing a nocturnal ballet in the trees.
Source: Otago Daily Times