As part of its 60th-anniversary celebrations, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is introducing 60 future healthcare professionals who are currently in their first year. Meet Sinthivhele Sinthumule.
Sinthivhele Sinthumule has been involved with charity organisations since school, and if she was given R5 million, she would use it to start her own charity. Her big heart is also the reason why she chose to study medicine.
After matric, she was accepted into Stellenbosch University’s (SU) SciMathUS programme which offers students the opportunity to improve their National Senior Certificate marks in maths and science in order to qualify for higher education. “If it wasn’t for the programme, I wouldn’t have been able to study medicine,” she says.
Now she is first-year MB,ChB student and hopes to one day improve the availability of healthcare services in Limpopo. “I believe that if I want to see a change in the healthcare sector, the change starts with me.”
She thinks the biggest challenge the profession faces is the lack of resources to provide optimum services. In ten years’ time, she sees herself being involved in research on “better ways for doctors to give disadvantaged citizens best services”.
In a nutshell:
- Best habit? “I don’t get offended easily.”
- Motto you live by? “Never get tired of doing little things for others. Sometimes those things occupy the biggest part of their heart.”
- If you were an animal, what would you be and why? “An elephant, because they are strong, intelligent, loyal and unstoppable.”
- What message would you like to give to the campus? “Remember why you are here and don’t lose sight of the goals you have set for yourself.”
